New Mexico General Contractor License: What Applies and What Does Not
What New Mexico requires of a contracting business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
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New Mexico general contractor licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, statewide |
| What they are called | GB-98 General Building, GB-2 Residential |
| Who issues it | New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, Construction Industries Division |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
Does a contracting business need a license in New Mexico?
New Mexico issues the GB-98 General Building and the GB-2 Residential for general contractors.
New Mexico licenses contractors through the Construction Industries Division at any contract value, because state law bars acting as a contractor without a license classified for the work. The only dollar exemption, in a separate section, reaches an individual doing casual, minor or inconsequential work of $7,200 or less a year who files an annual declaration with the division, and it is not available to a company. General building work is licensed as GB-98 or, for residences and apartment houses of not more than four units, GB-2.
The contracting business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
New Mexico law issues the license to the applicant, and an applicant that is a corporation, registered limited liability partnership or limited liability company must have qualified to do business in New Mexico and must employ a certified qualifying party.
This records what New Mexico publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Verified 2026-09-03 against the primary source listed under Sources.
What the LLC has to do first
Where the state licenses the company rather than only the individual, the LLC has to exist before the license application can name it.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In New Mexico it is made with the New Mexico Secretary of State. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a contracting business in New Mexico covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance New Mexico general contractors are asked to show
General liability cover is the item most often demanded before a contractor license application is accepted or a job is awarded, and the certificate has to name the entity that holds the license.
We do not publish New Mexico premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for general contractors covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
4 documents
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified New Mexico sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.
- rld.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Article-13-CILA-7.1.21.pdfNew Mexico general contractors licensing, primary source: Article 13, Construction Industries Licensing, NMSA 1978 (New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department) (verified 2026-09-03)
- New Mexico statute: NMSA 60-13-12 (contractor license requirement)
- New Mexico statute: NMSA 60-13-3(D)(14) (casual work exemption)
- New Mexico statute: NMSA 60-13-14 (license issuance and qualifying party)
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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.