Moving to Alaska as a general contractor: every state's rule

Alaska's unlimited tier is the General Contractor certificate of registration issued by the Construction Contractors Program at the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing. It covers commercial work and operations that use three or more trades or that supervise mechanical and specialty subcontractors, and it carries no dollar limit. It is important to understand what this registration is and is not: AS 08.18 sets no examination, no experience and no qualifying individual for it, so it is a registration backed by money rather than a test of skill, and the only competency credential in the Alaska contractor scheme is the residential contractor endorsement that sits on top of it. The registration belongs to the business, which files a $25,000 surety bond or an equivalent cash deposit, public liability and property damage insurance, workers' compensation where employees are used, a $100 application fee and a $250 registration fee. Below this tier sit the Specialty Contractor registration, limited to work using not more than three trades and bonded at $10,000, and the Handyman Contractor registration, limited to projects with an aggregate contract price of $10,000 or less and bonded at $5,000. A general contractor may not build, remodel or bid residential work on a one-to-four-unit dwelling above 25 percent of the structure's value without the residential contractor endorsement.