12 Steps to Getting Your California General Contractors License

12 Steps to Your California General Contractors License

This guide will show you everything you need to know to get your general contractors license in California!

Before we get started you’re probably wondering:

“How hard is it to get my GC license in California?”

Well, while it is more difficult in California than in other states, today we are going to make it as easy as possible on you.

1 – Do you need/qualify for a general contractor’s license?

In order to be able to get your GC license in California, you must meet the following requirements:

California’s Requirements:

• Be 18 or older with a valid Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number
• Have had four years of qualifying experience (journey-level or above) within the past 10 years
• Pass a two-part exam through the Contractors State Licensing Board
• Make sure you meet requirements for those with prior convictions. This can be waived but will require additional work on the applicant’s part.

Who must be licensed as a GC in California?

There are some nuances, but it comes down to this:

1. If you aren’t an employee (i.e. you are self employed)
2. You are working on a project with a value of $500 or more (labor + materials)

You can find all of the specific exemptions listed here.

Information on requirements after you’re licensed

Once you’ve read this article and completed all the steps to be licensed, you’ll have some additional requirements that the CSLB (California State Licensing Board) will require from you:

All Licenses:

• $15,000 contractor’s bond or cashiers check
• Proof of current and valid workers’ compensation insurance if: You hire any employee(s) who reside in CA OR Employ home improvement salesperson(s)

LLC Licenses Only:

• $100,000 Surety Bond (in addition to the $15,000 contractor’s bond)
• A $12,500 bond of qualifying individual or cashier’s check for every responsible managing employee and all responsible managing officers who own less than 10 percent of the voting stock or equity of the corporation.
• $1 Million Liability Insurance Minimum (Plus $100,000 for each additional personal past the first 5)
• Personnel of Record
• ~ Every person and/or company that is an officer, responsible manager, member, or director of an LLC must be listed and is subject to fingerprinting.
• ~ This will be verified against the Secretary of State record, so make sure everything is up to date and accurate.

2 – Decide on a business name/type

Picking a name

Deciding on your business name is one of the most important early decisions you’ll have to make. You’ll want a name that is easy to remember but isn’t too similar to your competitors’ names.

It is possible to have multiple names if you decide to use a DBA or “doing business as.”

Make sure you do a google search to see if the name you want to use is already taken.

Picking a business type

There are a lot of considerations regarding which type of business to make – LLC or sole owner, etc. If you have any concerns or want more information we strongly recommend consulting a business attorney. For now you should likely just decide between an LLC or sole owner.

If you’d like more information about how to start an LLC, pick a name and find a domain name, you can check out the article we wrote “How to Start an LLC in California: The Step by Step Guide.”

This article will provide more of a deep dive into all of the aspects required in starting an LLC or business in general, as well as how to file with the California Secretary of State.

You’ll want to have your business entity on file and ready to go before you move forward with the remaining steps.

3 – Choosing a license type

California offers a lot of options when it comes to contractor licenses. You can look at the full list here, but for the purposes of becoming a “General Contractor” i.e. someone who manages a project with two or more unrelated trades, you’ll want to go with a Class B license type. Note, this is different from the B-2 class type, which is specifically for residential remodeling only.

To be a General Contractor in California you want to use license type B.

4 – Verify Work Experience

As mentioned earlier, in order to qualify for licensing you have to have at least 4 years of qualifying experience (journey-level or above) within the past 10 years.

Getting the certification of work experience requires you to have information of the company you worked for, including their license number.

Certification of Work Experience

To fill this out the CSLB gives you three different options:

Easy fill

• An online wizard that gives you a completed form once you’re done filling it out.
• Find the easy fill here.

PDF

• A standard PDF that you can fill out and print.
• Find the PDF here.

Order

• The option to place an order and receive the form via the mail.
• Find the Order option here.
• Before you order you should also take a minute to determine what other forms you’ll need.

It is possible to get work experience verified based on “owner-builder” work, but you must use a special certification separate from the one mentioned above.

Owner-Builder Certification of Work Experience

Once again the CSLB gives you three different options for the Owner-Builder experience certificate:

Easy fill

• An online wizard that gives you a completed form once you’re done filling it out.
• Find the easy fill here.

PDF

• A standard PDF that you can fill out and print.
• Find the PDF here.

Order

• The option to place an order and receive the form via the mail.
• Find the Order option here.
• Before you order you should also take a minute to determine what other forms you’ll need.

Make sure you are thorough and complete when filling out your work experience. According to the CSLB nearly 50% of all applications submitted are incomplete. If you do submit an incomplete application, CSLB will return it and you will have 90 days to fix and re-submit your application before you will have to completely restart you application and pay again.

Once you’ve completed your work experience certificate, print it out and set it to the side. You will be mailing this in alongside the application.

5 – Complete the application

The application for Original Contractor License is for new applicants for all business entity types.

CSLB gives you the same three options to fill the application out:

Easy fill

• An online wizard that gives you a completed form once you’re done filling it out.
• Find the easy fill here.

PDF

• A standard PDF that you can fill out and print.
• Find the PDF here.

Order

• The option to place an order and receive the form via the mail.
• Find the Order option here.
• Before you order you should also take a minute to determine what other forms you’ll need.

You can view a sample of a properly completed application here.

Additional instructions and answers to common questions are included in the information/instruction sections located before the application.

6 – Submit Application & Fees

Once you’ve filled out the application completely, you should submit the application and certificate of work experience along with the fees required to the following:

Check or Money Order(mailed):

                  Contractors State License Board

                  P.O. Box 26000

                   Sacramento, CA 95826

Cash (exact change only), Check, or Money Order (in person at Sacramento office ONLY)

                  Contractors State License Board

                  9821 Business Park Drive

                  Sacramento, CA 95827

Before you submit the application, check to make sure you don’t need additional documentation!

Examples of this include:

• Additional Personnel form required for LLCs.
• Disclosure Statement Regarding Criminal Plea/Conviction.

You can find these forms and more information on them here.

Don’t submit the general information and instructions portions of your completed application – only submit the areas that you have filled out.

Once you have all documents filled out and ready to go, feel free to send them in to the address listed above. Fees are outlined below and are current as of 02/14/2022, but please check the CSLB website to find the current fees.

Sole Owner: Single Classification                                 $450

Initial license fee (to be paid after requested)                 $200

Total fees required for original license Sole Owner         $650

Non-Sole Owner: Single Classification                         $450

Initial license fee (to be paid after requested)                 $350

Total fees required for original license Non-Sole Owner $800

This means if you are applying as a Sole Owner you will mail your application in with $450, and if you are applying as a Non-Sole Owner (every entity that isn’t a sole owner) You will mail it in with $450. You only mail the “Initial License Fee” after it is requested, which should happen after you pass the exam.

7 – Getting Fingerprinted

After the CSLB has reviewed the application and accepted it as complete (also known as “posted”), they will send instructions to each individual who needs to be fingerprinted.

If you are required to be fingerprinted you should also receive a form “Request for Live Scan Service” where you need to complete the third section (applicant information) and bring three copies of the completed form to a Live Scan station.

Live Scan Locations are listed here.

There is an additional cost of $49 +/- of getting fingerprinted.

More information for all relevant questions is available here.

8 – Taking the Exams

Once the application is complete or “posted,” you should also receive a “Notice to Appear for Examination” which will give you the exam location, travel directions, and information about required identification. Exam locations are based on zip code.

All applicants must pass the following two computer-based exams:

• Law and business
• Trade

Waivers for the exam are available, but they all require either being a current license holder, past license holder, or having passed the tests before (in the last 5 years).

The CSLB provides lots of free resources to help you study for the exam.

• ‍Exam study guides
• ‍What to Expect on Test Day

You are given 3.5 hours to complete each test.

Language translation is available if you need it.

If you fail you can try again but you have to pay a non-refundable $60. You can try to pass the test as many times as you like within an 18 month period.

9 – Additional Requirements

Congratulations!! You passed both exams and are well on your way to getting your General Contractor’s license. There are just a few last items you need to take care of.

To summarize what has been done so far, you have:

• Chosen a business name and entity type
• Filed with Secretary of State if LLC or non-sole owner.
• Submitted an application and work experience certificate along with fees to the CSLB.
• Been Fingerprinted
• Scheduled and passed both exams

You should receive a letter from the CSLB that will outline the remaining requirements, but to save you the suspense here they are:

Next up you’ll need to:

1. Pay the remaining licensing fee: $200 for sole owner/$350 for non-sole owner (Confirm this as fees will change over time!)
2. Complete and submit results of the asbestos open book exam. Find the exam here.
3. Make sure fingerprints are submitted and done
4. Proof of $15,000 contractor’s bond. Bonds must be written by licensed surety company licensed through the California Department of Insurance.
5. Proof of current and valid worker’s compensation insurance
6. LLC requirements

             -$12,500 bond for qualifying individual for every responsible managing employee/responsible managing officers who own less than 10 percent of voting stock

             -$100,000 worker bond (in addition to $15,000 contractor bond)

             -$1 million liability insurance ($100,000 for each additional employee past the first 5)

You can also find these listed on the CSLB’s website here.

10 – Licensed!

Once you’ve completed all of those steps and submitted everything to the CSLB, you should receive your wall certificate to hang up.

Congratulations! You’ve just finished the General Contractor licensing process!

Your license will remain valid for two years from the last day of the month in which it was issued. Each renewal is good for another two years.

11 – Other Considerations

If you didn’t get a chance to read through our article “How to Start an LLC in California: The Step by Step Guide,” then you’ll need to consider a few other items.

We aren’t going to deep-dive into them in this article, but they are worth mentioning because they are vital to getting your business up and running.

• Getting an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS. This is required for setting up a bank account. Only for non-sole owner companies – sole owners will use their SSN.
• Get a bank account setup
• Choose a domain name
• Consider a website and marketing approach to how you’re going to generate business. We use FeedbackWrench for our website design and SEO/Ad needs.
• Get a work specific email address
• Think ahead about tax ramifications – federal/state/local.

12 – Helpful Resources

• ‍Get Licensed to Build: A Guide to Becoming a California Licensed Contractor. A guide book written by CSLB that gives in depth help.
• ‍Check Exam Application Status: Using your application fee number and PIN you got from your acknowledgement letter, you can check the status of your application.
• Free Licensing Workshops - First Friday of every month at 10:00 am CSLB offers a live, interactive workshop to answer your questions and help you out.
• Past workshops available at CSLB’s YouTube Channel

Final Thoughts:

The most helpful resource we can give is to advise you to start your business off with a firm grip on your finances and tax planning. There are many ways you can do this, but one of them is by giving us a call and letting us give you a quote to help you.

We focus on helping small-medium sized businesses at all stages and can easily scale with you. Whether you need tax planning, bookkeeping, payroll, or just want quarterly reporting and advice, we’ve got you covered.

To get more information on pricing, check out https://www.asnanicpa.com/services to schedule a free consultation and view price ranges.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, we hope it was helpful and easy to follow!