Illinois licenses contractors through the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), whose dataset spans every profession IDFPR regulates statewide. Within that broad dataset, 'Licensed Roofing Contractor' is a real, distinct, business-level license — a genuine tested credential, not a general business filing.
That's the only statewide trade contractor license Illinois issues that fits this site's model, and it's worth understanding why: Illinois has no statewide electrical, general-contractor, or HVAC contractor license at all — those trades are regulated locally, at the city or county level, with requirements that vary significantly by jurisdiction (Chicago's licensing requirements, for instance, are entirely separate from a smaller downstate city's). Plumbing is licensed statewide in Illinois, but by a different agency (the Department of Public Health) that publishes no bulk, machine-readable export — only a one-at-a-time web lookup — so it isn't included in this site's automated data pipeline.
This is exactly why Illinois only has roofing_general listings on TrustedTradesFinder rather than the full four trades — it's not a gap in this site's coverage, it's an accurate reflection of what Illinois actually licenses at the state level in a way that can be verified in bulk.
IDFPR's roofing contractor data is fully live and automated, refreshed on a recurring schedule. IDFPR's dataset also includes a related but different credential, 'Qualifying Party Roofing Contractor' — an individual-level technical qualifier role, not a business license — which this site deliberately excludes to avoid listing individuals as if they were licensed businesses.
Status categories follow the standard pattern — active, expired, revoked, pending — based on IDFPR's own current records. To verify any Illinois roofing contractor directly, IDFPR maintains its own license lookup tool searchable by name or license number.
If you're looking for an electrician, general contractor, or plumber in Illinois, your city or county is the right place to check local licensing requirements, since no statewide bulk-verifiable credential exists for those trades the way it does for roofing.