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

Iowa's commercial and general building tier is the same credential described at the residential level: a single construction contractor registration with the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing, with no classes, no letters, no monetary limits and no separation between house and commercial work. Iowa does not license general contractors at all. Chapter 91C of the Iowa Code and 481 Iowa Administrative Code chapter 465 set out the whole of what registration takes, and they contain no trade examination, no business-and-law examination, no experience requirement, no net worth or financial statement test, no continuing education and no qualifying party. The scope is set by the employment security definition of construction, which covers building construction, heavy construction such as highways, power plants and pipelines, and every special trade, and which names 'general contractors, design-builders, engineer-constructors, joint-venture contractors, and turnkey construction contractors' among the establishments it reaches. Registration is held by the business, and a joint venture registers as an independent entity in its own right. What the state verifies is compliance rather than competence: an Iowa unemployment insurance employer account number, workers' compensation coverage or a statement that it is not required, a $50 annual fee, and a $25,000 surety bond from any contractor whose principal place of business is outside Iowa. Registration matters commercially as well as legally - a building official may not issue a permit to an unregistered contractor, and an unregistered contractor may not be awarded a contract for work for the state or a state agency. Iowa's real competency licenses are in the trades: electricians under chapter 103 and plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, refrigeration, hydronic and sheet metal contractors under chapter 105.