State licensing agency no longer requiring applicants to disclose past criminal convictions
SACRAMENTO – The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) is announcing that with the start of the new fiscal year (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021), there has been an important change to the application used to get a California contractor’s license.
CSLB is no longer asking applicants if they have been convicted of a crime. The change is based on the implementation of Assembly Bill (AB) 2138, which was signed into law in September, 2018.
License candidates will still need to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice.
CSLB staff may reach out to the applicant as they evaluate any felony criminal convictions within seven years of the application date; three years from the application date for misdemeanor convictions.
All convictions involving a violent felony, certain sexual crimes, or financial crimes related to construction, no matter when they occurred, also will be evaluated.
Among the factors staff evaluate are the nature and severity of the crime, the amount of time that has passed since a conviction, and any evidence of rehabilitation the applicant submits to CSLB.
CSLB denies approximately one percent (1%) of the total applications received based on criminal convictions.
