How to Get a Florida General Contractor License: Step-by-Step

Florida’s general contractor license follows a fixed order: document qualifying experience, clear financial responsibility, pass the three-part state exam, arrange insurance, file the CILB 5-A, then renew. What sets the pace is not one waiting period but three separate clocks, and only one of them belongs to the state. This page sequences all three.

The three clocks that decide how long it takes

Three clocks run in sequence. The first is the applicant’s: nothing downstream starts until the experience history, the credit report or course certificate, and the insurance certificates exist. The second is the exam calendar, set by the vendor. The third is statutory, and it is the only one carrying a deadline.

The statutory clock is the number that fixes the outer bound. Under Fla. Stat. 120.60, subsection (1), an agency receiving a license application must notify the applicant of apparent errors or omissions and request any additional information it is permitted by law to require within 30 days of receipt, and must approve or deny the application within 90 days after receipt of a completed application, unless a shorter period is provided by law. Read the second deadline precisely: the 90 days runs from a completed application, not from the day an incomplete one was mailed. That single word is why filing with gaps is the expensive mistake — it buys a request for more information instead of a decision date. The subsection also tolls the period while a proceeding under s. 120.569 or s. 120.57 is pending, and contains a default-approval mechanism where an agency misses the deadline; how that works depends on conditions the statute sets out, so read 120.60(1) rather than treating a missed deadline as automatic.

One gate carries no published number, and this page will not invent one. Division I of the Construction Industry Licensing Board — its general, building and residential contractor members — has jurisdiction over general contractor regulation, and five Division I members constitute a quorum (Fla. Stat. 489.107(4)(a) and 489.107(5)). A matter the division must consider therefore waits for a meeting at which that quorum sits. The cadence is not set in statute, so confirm the current calendar with the board that decides your application rather than trusting an interval quoted by a course vendor.

How to become a general contractor in Florida: the six steps at a glance

Step	What you do	The gate it creates
1	Document qualifying experience	Former employers must confirm it, naming their qualifying contractor’s license number
2	Clear financial responsibility	A FICO-derived score under 660 routes the applicant to a 14-hour course
3	Register for and pass the exam	Admission slips 20–25 days out; four years from the first scheduled date
4	Arrange insurance	Certificates at the right limits before the file is complete
5	File the CILB 5-A	The 30-day and 90-day periods start here
6	Renew	A fixed biennial date, not an anniversary of issuance

Step 1 — Document qualifying experience

Whether a work history qualifies at all is a separate question, answered under who qualifies for a Florida GC license. This step is the paperwork that proves it, and it is usually the longest-lead item in the sequence because other people have to cooperate.

The employment history traces every claim back to a licensee, so it can only move as fast as former employers respond. Part B totals worker and foreman years, and the form states the total “should equal or exceed the number of years of experience required for the qualification method selected in Part A.” Two things stall files here: an employer who no longer exists or will not respond, and totals that do not reach the method chosen. What Part B asks for is set out on what qualifying for a state license takes; the filing checklist is on the CILB 5-A application.

Step 2 — Clear financial responsibility

Financial responsibility is settled by Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G4-15.006, amended effective May 5, 2024. The rule lists among grounds for denial the “Failure to provide proof of a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher,” and provides that applicants “who are unable to provide a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher, shall meet the financial stability requirement by completion of a 14-hour financial responsibility course approved by the Board.” The current rule mentions no surety bond at all; the two paths are the score or the course. Bond vendors still market a “sub-660 bond” — a private product, not a requirement of the rule.

The sequencing consequence is why this step sits second rather than last. Pulling the credit report is fast; the fallback is not. Fourteen hours of Board-approved instruction has to be scheduled, sat, and certified, and the certificate has to be in hand when the application goes in. A certificate that arrives afterwards is exactly the omission the 30-day notice under 120.60(1) comes back for, and the 90-day period will not have started meanwhile. The rule is written for “an applicant” with no differentiation by class, so the same two paths apply to certified general, building and residential applicants alike. For the price of each route, see what each step costs.

Step 3 — Register for and pass the state examination

Registration for the three Division I parts runs through the DBPR’s contract exam vendor; the parts, the format, the fees and the retake rules are on the state construction examination.

Two timing gates belong to this step, because both decide when registration has to close:

• Admission slips. Admission slips go out 20–25 days before the exam date, so registration has to close well before a target date.
• The four-year window. All parts must be passed within four years, and the clock starts at the first scheduled exam date — not the first pass.

Study sequencing is on how to prepare for the three parts.

Step 4 — Arrange insurance

Insurance is a documents-before-filing step and the limits differ by class, so the certificates have to exist at the right limits before the file is complete — the class-by-class minimums, their statutory and rule basis, and the workers’ compensation exemption are on what each class must carry. The exemption is obtained by filing with the Division of Workers’ Compensation, so it runs in parallel — start it early if it applies.

Step 5 — File the CILB 5-A

The form is the DBPR CILB 5-A, “Certified General Contractor as an Individual – Active/Inactive”, incorporated by Rule 61-35.010, Florida Administrative Code, effective July 2024. Building and residential applicants use their own forms, 5-B and 5-C, and the wrong number in the CILB series is a routine cause of rejection.

The fee is set by a calendar window rather than by the applicant, which is the one step where the filing date itself can matter — the current windows are on what each step costs.

Filing is also the moment the agency clock starts, which is the argument for filing complete rather than filing fast. The 30-day omissions notice and the 90-day decision period under Fla. Stat. 120.60(1) run from receipt — the 90 days specifically from a completed application. A file submitted with the experience history unfinished, a course certificate missing, or insurance at the wrong limits collects a request for more information instead. The item-by-item list is on the CILB 5-A document checklist page; the numbered CILB form series is indexed at the board that decides your application.

Working while the application is pending

A pending application is not a license. Fla. Stat. 489.127(1) prohibits engaging in the business or acting in the capacity of a contractor without being duly certified or registered, and 489.13(1) applies regardless of any local license held; see working while your application is pending.

Step 6 — Maintain the license

Issuance starts a biennial cycle on a fixed statewide calendar rather than an anniversary of the license; renewal deadlines and continuing education carries the current deadline, the fees, and the inactive and reactivation routes.

Because the deadline is a shared calendar date, a license issued late in a biennium reaches its first renewal sooner than a license issued at the start of one. That is a planning fact, not a penalty: whatever continuing education that first renewal requires has to be found, booked and completed inside whatever remains of the cycle at issuance — confirm what applies to your first cycle on renewal deadlines and continuing education.

Common questions

How long does it take to get a Florida general contractor license?

There is no single figure, and a page quoting one is guessing at the parts it cannot control. The state’s share is bounded: under Fla. Stat. 120.60(1), omissions come back within 30 days and a decision follows within 90 days of a completed application. Everything before filing is applicant-paced, and the exam adds its own calendar.

What should be done first?

The two longest-lead items depend on other people: the Part B employment history, which needs former employers and their qualifying contractors’ license numbers, and — where the credit score comes in under 660 — the 14-hour course. Both can run while exam study is underway. Eligibility is the prior question, covered under who qualifies for a Florida GC license.

Can review take longer than 90 days?

The 90 days runs from a completed application, so an incomplete file resets the start. Fla. Stat. 120.60(1) also tolls the period while a proceeding under s. 120.569 or s. 120.57 is pending. Separately, a matter Division I must consider waits for a meeting with a quorum — a dependency with no statutory interval.

Where to go deeper

Each step links to the page that owns its substance: eligibility, the exam, insurance, the filing, renewal. For the whole picture, start from the Florida contractor licensing overview.

This page summarizes Florida law and DBPR procedure and is general information, not legal advice. Verify every detail with the Florida DBPR before acting.

Last verified: 2026-07-27