Contractor License & Permit Bonds in Wyoming

Wyoming has no state contractor license — so “Wyoming contractor license bond” is a city question, and the cities answer it three different ways

Start with the fact that decides everything else. Wyoming does not license general contractors at state level. Its professions and occupations title runs to forty-seven licensing chapters — abstractors, accountants, architects, attorneys, barbers, chiropractors, cosmetologists, dentists, hotel keepers, junk dealers, nurses, surveyors and engineers, on through acupuncture — and not one of them is contractors. There is no state contractor license to bond, and nothing at state level preempting the cities from licensing you themselves.

So they do. Several Wyoming cities license and bond contractors under their own codes, and if you searched for a state bond and found nothing, that is why: the question is which city. What is worth knowing before you shop is that Wyoming’s cities do not all attach the bond to the same thing. Some bond your license. Some bond your permit instead. Some bond both. And two of the state’s three largest cities bond neither.

That is not a gap in the research — it is the actual shape of the state, and it changes what you should be buying. A contractor licensed in one Wyoming town and permitting in another may need two different instruments, or one, or none.

The cities that bond the license

In Gillette, the bond goes with the license and the amount does not move. The Gillette contractor license bond is $5,000 for every licensed class — Class A general contractor, Class B building, Class R residential, Class C specialty, Class D vocational and Class F fire suppression all post the same sum (Gillette City Code § 5-III-14). Only the insurance tiers by class. The bond is payable to the City and all or part of it may be forfeited for damage to City property. Note the corollary: Gillette bonds the license and not the street permit — its streets and engineering chapters require no bond at all.

Lander also bonds the license, and it is the one Wyoming city on this page whose ordinance lets you choose the instrument. The Lander contractor license bond covers five trades — electrical, plumbing, building, refrigeration repair and HVAC contractors — and is required before the license is issued and again at every renewal. We do not publish a figure for it, and the reason is in the ordinance’s own words: the requirement may be met by posting either a cash bond or a surety bond. Where a city gives you that choice, the sum is the size of a security you can satisfy more than one way, not the price of a bond. One more feature worth knowing: it answers to private claimants as well as to the city — anyone damaged by a failure to comply with the licensing title may sue on it in their own name.

The cities that bond the permit instead — and the one that bonds neither

Cheyenne and Casper, the two largest cities in the state, have no contractor license bond at all. Cheyenne’s business license chapter creates none, and its streets title carries a single bond that is a public-works contract instrument for city projects rather than a permit bond. What both cities bond is specific work in the public way.

In Casper: the street excavation bond, which the code lets you satisfy with a corporate surety bond, an irrevocable letter of credit, or a certified check or cash deposit sized to your estimated construction charges, whichever is greater; the erosion and sediment control bond, which the chapter sizes by the square footage you disturb and whose definitions treat a bond as one of several acceptable securities; and the building moving bond at $5,000, approved by the mayor or city council rather than by staff.

In Cheyenne: the building moving permit bond and the demolition permit bond. Both are quoted rather than published, because the code calls for a cash performance bond in a range the building official sets case by case, and the moving permit requires a second security alongside it.

Laramie requires neither. Its business title licenses seventeen kinds of business and not one is a contractor, and the construction division of its streets title runs to dozens of excavation and permit provisions without a single bond. If you work only in Laramie, the honest answer is that the city does not bond you.

The cities that bond both — including the largest municipal contractor bonds in this directory

Sheridan makes contracting a licensed trade outright: it is unlawful to contract or subcontract in the city on work covered by the building chapter unless you are duly licensed, and the building official will not issue a permit to anyone not licensed and bonded for the work. The scheme has two sums. The general contractor license bond is $25,000, and it covers both Type I classes — the general commercial contractor, unrestricted as to building type, and the general residential contractor, limited to one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses. They post the same bond at the same amount. The trade and subcontractor license bond is $10,000 and covers everything else: plumbing, HVAC, fire sprinkler and electrical in Type II; structural concrete, roofing, masonry and drywall in Type III; siding, glazing, plastering, acoustical, sign and solar in Type IV; and excavation or utility contractors in Type V.

Jackson carries the largest municipal contractor bonds in this directory, and it publishes the whole schedule. The general and building contractor license bond is $250,000 for Class A and Class B alike. The restricted and residential contractor license bond is $100,000 for Class Br and Class C. The specialty contractor license bond — the code calls it all other contractors — is $20,000, and it is where most trades sit. Applications also require proof of Wyoming workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, or proof of why each is not required. On top of the license, Jackson bonds work in its streets: the encroachment permit bond is $1,000 per permit, with an annual blanket form available at a larger sum if you permit regularly, and a demolition compliance bond whose amount the town sets when the permit issues.

Torrington runs three separate instruments. The contractor license bond is $1,000, flat across the general, residential and plumbing classes in the city’s licensing table. Roofing is licensed separately in its own chapter and carries its own roofing contractor license bond, also $1,000, required before you do any roofing work in the city. And digging in a Torrington street or alley needs the street digging permit bond at $750 for a single-hole permit — conditioned on repairing the street within forty-eight hours — or an annual form if you dig there regularly.

Wheatland licenses and bonds three trades — gas pipefitters, electricians and water treatment installers — on the Wheatland trade contractor license bond at $2,000. It does not license general contractors: its buildings and construction title adopts the international codes and requires no contractor license or bond.

The one state-level bond, and the one Wyoming does not have

Wyoming has exactly one state bond a contractor may need, and it is a tax instrument rather than a license one. The nonresident contractor sales tax bond secures payment of the sales taxes that accrue on a construction contract, and it is required of nonresident prime contractors working in the state, with the Department of Revenue as obligee. Register each project with the department within fifteen days of starting work; failure to register carries its own penalty on the contract value.

We quote it rather than publish a figure, and there are three reasons in the statute itself. The requirement reads a surety bond or legal security, so a bond is one accepted form rather than the only one. A separate subsection lets you provide a cash deposit instead, at a higher rate, refunded once a bond is filed or the project is satisfactorily completed. And the amount is a percentage of the payments due under your contract, or whatever the department determines, rather than a stated sum. A contractor working continuously in Wyoming may instead elect a single blanket security covering all of its Wyoming contracts. One currency note worth having: the parallel use tax security provisions were repealed in 2026, so there is one of these now, not two.

And the negative that surprises people who have worked in Montana: Wyoming licenses water well drilling and pump installation contractors and does not bond them. The state board examines and licenses them, and what it requires instead of security is documentation of financial responsibility including proof of general liability insurance. Montana bonds its water well contractors; Wyoming does not. The same is true of electricians — Wyoming licenses electrical contractors, master electricians and journeymen through its fire prevention and electrical safety division, and no bond attaches to any of those licenses.

If your city is not named above

The general-use records cover the patterns Wyoming actually runs. The Wyoming contractor license bond is the right starting point if you need a license bond and are not sure what your city requires — tell us the city and the class and we will quote what its code publishes. The street opening and right-of-way bond covers digging and encroachment work, which Wyoming cities size four different ways, several of them offering an annual blanket form that covers a year of permits on one bond. The erosion and sediment control bond covers land disturbance, which is sized to the area you disturb rather than set as a sum.

Every Wyoming bond on this page is quoted through our form rather than an instant portal. In a state where the requirement is municipal, varies by city, varies by license class within a city, and in some places can be satisfied with cash instead of a bond, confirming it with the obligee before pricing it is the only honest way to do it.