Licensing, Registration, and Administrative Requirements
What this domain tests
The administrative machinery: how an application is built, what qualifies an applicant, what must be maintained after licensure, and what triggers a report to the Department.
Application file
- Minimum age (18) and good moral character.
- Experience or education substitution: documented investigative hours, or a combination of training and degree work accepted by the Department. Keep employer letters, timesheets, and course certificates.
- Fingerprint-based state and FBI criminal history checks.
- Examination passage.
- Surety bond and liability insurance at the levels currently set by rule; confirm current figures before relying on them.
- Agency applicants add a licensed qualifier, business entity filings, and a registered address.
Ongoing duties
- Carry the license and produce it on request.
- Renew on the Department's cycle; late renewal usually means reapplying or paying penalties.
- Report address changes, name changes, arrests, charges, and convictions promptly.
- Employees must be licensed and registered; an unlicensed subcontractor working your case is your violation.
- Maintain case and business records as the rules require, and keep them available for inspection.
Worked example
An investigator's license lapses while a domestic case is open. Reasoning: work performed after expiration is unlicensed practice even though the client already paid and the case predates expiration. The correct action is to stop work, notify the client, renew or reinstate, and document the gap. Continuing quietly converts an administrative lapse into a disciplinary and contract problem.
Traps
- Trusting a vendor's or subcontractor's claim of licensure without checking the Department's roster.
- Failing to report an arrest because the charge was later dropped; reporting duties often attach at arrest.
- Letting insurance or the bond lapse mid-term.
Key points
- Document experience hours contemporaneously; they are the hardest item to reconstruct.
- Fingerprints and criminal history checks are part of the file.
- Bond and insurance must stay current for the whole license term.
- Report address changes, arrests, and charges promptly.
- Verify every subcontractor's license with the Department.