How to Verify a Trade License

Unlike physician licensing (which has the NPDB federal overlay) or financial-advisor licensing (which routes through FINRA), trade licensing in the US sits entirely at the state level. Each state runs its own boards, sets its own classifications, and publishes its own lookup. About 30 states require general contractor licenses at the state level; the rest delegate to counties and municipalities.

The practical implication: there is no single national lookup. Aggregators bridge the state boards for convenience, but the authoritative source is always the state board itself. Verifying a license is a state-then-trade-then-classification lookup.

Almost every state regulates electrical work. The lookup endpoint is the state Department of Labor, Occupational Licensing Division, or a dedicated Electrical Board. Examples:

• ·Texas TDLR (Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation) at tdlr.texas.gov/verify.htm for residential, journeyman, master, and contractor licenses.
• ·California CSLB (Contractors State License Board) at cslb.ca.gov for C-10 electrical contractors. California regulates electrical work at the contractor level rather than the individual technician.
• ·Maryland DLLR (Department of Labor) for master electrician licenses.
• ·New Hampshire OPLC, Massachusetts Occupational Board, Ohio eLicense, Virginia DPOR. Each state names its agency differently; each publishes a public lookup.

What to confirm: the license is active (not expired or suspended), the classification matches the work (residential vs commercial, journeyman vs master), the licensee is bonded and insured as required, and any disciplinary history is reviewed.

In Chicago, New York City, Detroit, and several other large municipalities, the city adds its own electrical license requirement on top of the state license. Check both.

Plumbing licensing follows the same model. Some states have a dedicated Plumbing Board:

• ·Texas TSBPE(Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners), separate from TDLR’s electrical and HVAC.
• ·Massachusetts licenses plumbers and gas fitters through the Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters.
• ·Maryland DLLR handles plumbing alongside other trades.
• ·California CSLB regulates plumbing contractors (C-36 classification).

Classifications: apprentice, journeyman, master, gasfitter, medical gas (where applicable). Confirm the classification matches the work. A journeyman plumber operating without master oversight on commercial work may be out of scope of their license even if the license itself is active.

HVAC is a two-layer check. Most states require an HVACR contractor license at the company level; some require individual technicians to be licensed. Examples: Texas TDLR for HVACR contractors, California CSLB for C-20 HVAC contractors.

Federally, EPA Section 608 certification is required for any technician who services, installs, or disposes of equipment containing refrigerants. There are four certification types (Type I small appliances, Type II high-pressure, Type III low-pressure, Universal covering all three). EPA does not publish a searchable public lookup. The technician carries a certification card; verify directly with the certifying organization (ESCO Institute, RSES, Ferris State, AC Service Tech).

State coverage varies. Roughly 30 states require a state-level general contractor license; the others delegate to counties and cities. California, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, and Nevada have particularly active state licensing boards with strong public lookups. Texas does not license general contractors at the state level (only specialty trades like electrical and plumbing); city or county registration may apply.

What to confirm at the contractor level: active license, classification matches the project scope, bonding and insurance are current, the contractor is the same legal entity that bid the project (a common fraud pattern is a license held by a third party who lets the unlicensed contractor work under it).

Commercial Driver Licenses are issued by state DMVs. The federal layer adds three pieces:

• ·CDLIS (Commercial Driver License Information System), operated by AAMVA, links state CDL records. Not publicly searchable; employers query via state DMV channels.
• ·FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, mandatory for employers to query before hire and annually thereafter. Records DOT drug and alcohol test failures and refusals.
• ·FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), voluntary but widely used, returning the driver’s inspection and crash history.

For an in-hand CDL card, the AAMVA-format PDF417 barcode on the back encodes license number, class (A, B, C), endorsements (H hazmat, P passenger, S school bus, T double-trailer, X tanker), and restrictions. A barcode scan instantly validates the card. See our government ID verification guide for the AAMVA decode logic.

• ·Classification mismatch. The license is active but for the wrong class of work. A journeyman plumber on a commercial project, a C-36 plumbing contractor doing electrical, a residential-only license on a commercial building.
• ·Lapsed within the last 30 days. The aggregator data lags. The state board lookup is real-time. Always verify the active status the day the work starts.
• ·License under a different legal entity. The contractor is using a license held by their brother-in-law or former employer. Confirm the named licensee is the same legal entity issuing the contract.
• ·Out-of-state license, no in-state authority. A licensed Texas electrician doing work in New Mexico without a New Mexico license. Reciprocity exists in some compacts; many trades have none.
• ·Missing municipal layer. The state license is active, but the work is in Chicago, NYC, or another city with its own license requirement. Both layers are required.

Trade-license fraud usually shows up as a fake license card or a photocopy of someone else’s license. The state board lookup is the primary defense (it returns active status by name or number), but for the in-hand card itself, forensic AI on the PDF or image is the supporting layer. It catches:

• ·Photoshop-altered name, license number, or expiration date on a real-looking card.
• ·Composite cards combining a real license number with a different name.
• ·AI-generated license cards that look correct but do not appear in any state board database.

For homeowners and small GCs running occasional checks, the state board lookup plus a phone call is enough. For procurement teams running hundreds of subcontractor checks per quarter, the combination of state-board automation plus forensic AI on uploaded license cards scales the workflow.