Building Permit Professional License Lookup - Help

About

This site allows the public to check the license status and recent permit activity for professionals authorized to process building permit applications in the City of Chicago. Data shown on the site is updated regularly, and the last update time can be found below the search results.

Architects, professional engineers, and structural engineers are licensed by the State of Illinois through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). The City of Chicago receives license updates from state records on a weekly basis. Accordingly, newly-issued licenses, renewals, and other status changes for state licenses may not be reflected for up to two weeks.

Illinois-licensed architects and structural engineers may also register with the City of Chicago as a Self-Certification Professional or Structural Peer Reviewer if they meet qualifications set forth in the rules for those programs.

Expediters are individuals licensed by the City of Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP). Expediters must be associated with a licensed expediter company, either as an employee or owner.

Under conditions set by ordinance, the Building Commissioner may suspend the ability of a state-licensed professional to start new City of Chicago building permit applications. If a license shows a status of “Inactivated,” the licensee may contact the Department of Buildings for more information.

Field Descriptions

License Type. This field shows the type of license, including whether it is issued by the City of Chicago or State of Illinois.

License Number. This field shows the license number.

Name. This field shows the full name associated with the license in last name, first name format.

Address. This field shows the city, state, and zip code for the address associated with the license.

Online Account. This field shows the types of permits for which the professional has an online account in the City of Chicago’s building permit systems. An architect or engineer does not require an online account to be listed on a building permit application if that application is processed by another professional with an account.

Recent Permits. This field shows if the professional is listed on a building permit issued in the past two years (730 days) or a pending building permit application started in the past year (365 days). This information is currently unavailable if an asterisk (*) is displayed. This information is not available for Structural Peer Reviewer licenses.

Expiration Date. This field shows the license expiration date in the city’s permit system. For State of Illinois licenses, it may take up to two weeks for this to reflect renewals.

License Status. This field shows if the professional’s license is active in the City of Chicago’s permit systems. If a license has a status of “Inactivated,” the licensee may contact the Department of Buildings for more information.