Moving to Massachusetts as a residential contractor: every state's rule

Massachusetts splits residential contracting between two credentials that do different jobs, and a remodeler usually needs both. The Construction Supervisor License (CSL) is the competency credential: the Board of Building Regulations and Standards issues it, it is won by passing an open-book examination on the Massachusetts State Building Code, and it is held by a person, not by a company - M.G.L. c. 143, § 94(i) directs the Board 'to issue licenses to individuals engaged as construction supervisors', so there is no entity license and no qualifying party arrangement of the kind most states use. Every building permit application must name the construction supervisor who will supervise the work, and give their signature, license number and license category. The homes-only CSL is the Restricted (one- and two-family dwellings) class, which covers construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, removal and demolition of one- and two-family dwellings and their accessory buildings, of any size. The Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration is the separate consumer-protection filing, run by the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation: anyone who solicits, bids on or performs work on an existing owner-occupied home of one to four units must register, pay into the Residential Contractor's Guaranty Fund, and put the registration number in every contract. The registration involves no examination, no experience review and no competency test at all, and the agency states plainly that an HIC registration 'is different from a Construction Supervisor License (CSL) and they are not interchangeable'. For someone arriving with an out-of-state license the answer is the same at both levels: the Board states that 'Massachusetts does not recognize out of state contractor licenses', so there is no reciprocity, no endorsement and no examination waiver, and the Massachusetts examination has to be taken.