The occupational license, state by state.
Forming the company and being allowed to do the work are two different registrations. The occupational license is the second one: the state's permission to do the work you do. Which trades need one, which office issues it, what the application asks for and how long it sits there are all state questions. Pick yours and start at the top of that page.
Four things that differ by state.
Occupational licensing is local by design. Two businesses doing identical work in different states can face very different requirements, and the differences start with whether a license is needed at all.
Whether you need one at all
The first question every state page answers is when a business in that state needs the license. The answer depends on the work, and it does not follow from having formed an entity. The company and the permission to do the work are separate registrations.
Who issues it
Registration goes to a state office, and which office that is depends on the state and on the work. Your state page names it and carries the contact details, which is most of the battle when an application stalls and somebody has to be called.
What the state asks for
Requirements are set state by state: what has to be shown, what has to be attached, what has to be true before the application is accepted. The at-a-glance section on each state page lists them before you start filling anything in.
How long it takes
Timelines belong to the state and they are not uniform. That matters when work is booked, a contract is waiting, or a client wants the license number before they sign. Each state page carries the timeline alongside the mistakes that lengthen it.
The entity makes you a business. The license makes you allowed.
Pick your state.
Each state page covers occupational licensing in that state: an at-a-glance summary, when businesses there need the license, how to register step by step, the mistakes that come up most often, and the related compliance that sits alongside it.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
You tell us what the business does and where it does it. We work out whether the state licenses that work, prepare the registration, and keep it with the rest of your compliance record.
Check whether you need one
Not every business does, and the answer is specific to the work and the state. Your state page opens with when businesses there need the license, which settles the question either way.
Gather what the state asks
Requirements differ by state and by trade. The at-a-glance section lists what has to be produced, so the application goes in complete rather than in three rounds of follow-up.
Submit the registration
The application goes to the agency that handles it in your state, with the details taken from the record we already hold rather than typed in again from memory.
Keep it with the rest
A license is one item in a compliance picture that also holds reports, registrations and renewals. Each state page ends with the related filings, so it is tracked together rather than alone.
Licensing is where local rules bite hardest. The state page is the shortest way through.
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Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
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The questions people ask before they register.
What is an occupational license?
It is a state registration that allows a business to do a particular kind of work. It is separate from forming the company: the entity filing creates the business, and the occupational license is the permission to operate in that field. Which work is licensed, and what a state asks for before it grants one, is decided state by state rather than nationally.
Does every business need one?
No. Occupational licensing attaches to particular kinds of work, so plenty of businesses never encounter it and others cannot open a door without it. The only reliable answer is the state one, which is why every state page starts with when businesses there need the license and what kind of work triggers the requirement in the first place.
Who issues occupational licenses?
A state office, and which one depends on the state and on the work involved. There is no single national register and no federal equivalent to apply to instead. Each state page names the agency that handles the registration there and carries its contact details, which matters more than it sounds like it should once an application is sitting somewhere unanswered.
How long does registration take?
That is set by the state, and the range across the country is wide. The practical answer is to start before the work is booked rather than after, because the timeline is not something an applicant can compress. Each state page carries the typical timeline for that state, alongside the common mistakes that stretch it out further.
What does the application ask for?
Requirements are state-specific, and the at-a-glance section on each state page sets out what that state expects before an application is accepted. The pattern is that everything has to arrive together. An incomplete application is not processed slowly, it is returned, and the wait starts again from the resubmission rather than from the original date.
Where do applications usually go wrong?
Every state page carries a common-mistakes section, because the ways an application goes wrong are as local as the requirements themselves. Reading it before you apply takes a few minutes and can save a resubmission, which is the difference between one timeline and two. It sits directly after the step-by-step registration guide on each page.
Keep going, in order.
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