State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors will issue and mail licenses on Thursday, May 1, 2008 to all applicants who have been approved for licensure. If you have been approved for licensure and do not receive your license by Thursday, May 15, 2008, please contact the Georgia Board of General and Residential Contractors at 478-207-2440.

State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors

Pursuant to Georgia law, the following types of contractors must obtain a license from the State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors by July 1, 2008:

• Residential-Basic Contractor (Contractor work relative to detached one-family and two-family residences and one-family townhouses not over three stories in height).
• Residential-Light Commercial Contractor (Contractor work or activity related to multifamily and multiuse light commercial buildings and structures).
• General Contractor (Contractor work or activity that is unlimited in scope regarding any residential or commercial projects).

After July 2, 2007, all applicants for licensure must pass a two part examination: A practical section related to the license they are trying to obtain and a business and law section. Because licensure will be required for the practice of contracting in Georgia effective July 1, 2008, we strongly recommend that you apply as early as possible before that date to allow time for processing of your application and subsequent test taking and scoring. To download an application and to see further instructions and information on the examination, please click  Examination Information for details. Examinations are offered Mondays through Fridays in Atlanta, Macon, and Tifton.

Applicants who are approved for examination will receive written notification of such. You are encouraged to schedule your examination with the test vendor shortly thereafter.  Please note that delaying the application and testing process may result in licenses not being issued before the July 1, 2008 deadline.

Please review the Board Rules and our Frequently Asked Questions for help in completing the applications. Please note, we cannot decide for you which license type for which you must apply. You must determine this by reading the definitions found in Georgia Law or by comparing the various license types and applying the definitions to your scope of work. If you still have unanswered questions, please call 478-207-2440.

Currently, the Board does not reciprocate with any state.

If you have been approved to take the exam, please contact PSI about scheduling your appointment to sit for the exam. Due to the number of applicants applying to take the exam, you need to allow adequate time for scheduling your appointment. Also, should a candidate fail the exam, he or she would need to allow adequate time to be re-scheduled for the exam. Remember, general contractors, residential-light commercial contractors, and basic residential contractors will need to be licensed by July 1, 2008.

Please note that Rule 295-2-.07 was adopted on July 23, 2008 and becomes effective on August 14, 2008.  This rule changes the expiration date for all residential and general contractor licenses, including companies,  from November 30th of odd years to June 30th of even years. All current residential and general licenses will be reprinted to reflect the new expiration date. These will be mailed by the end of August. Once you receive your new license, please discard the original one you received. From this point forward, anyone who is licensed, regardless of issuance date, will receive an expiration date of the following June 30th of the next even year. We will be sending notification of this change to local permitting offices to make them aware of this change.  While there will be a brief break in printing licenses, we will continue issuing new licenses so as not to impede a contractor’s ability to pull permits.  Licenses may be verified online at any time.