How to Get an Illinois Massage License

Last updated: August 24, 2026

Illinois has a 60-day fuse on your fingerprints and a continuing education requirement that just went up. IDFPR wants 600 clock hours of supervised instruction and the MBLEx — standard enough — but the Illinois State Police fingerprint verification must be taken within the 60 days before you apply, so getting printed too early means paying to do it twice. And for the 2026 renewal, continuing education rises to 25 hours with the addition of domestic violence and sexual assault awareness training.

What Illinois Actually Requires

• 600 clock hours of instruction from a program meeting Section 1284.20 of the Administrative Code, or a substantially similar program from another jurisdiction.
• Supervised classroom and supervised hands-on instruction — and Illinois defines supervised as the supervisor being physically on-site, qualified and immediately available.
• The MBLEx from the FSMTB ($265). Endorsement applicants may show the NCBTMB examination instead.
• Illinois State Police fingerprint processing, taken within 60 days before the application, from an approved vendor.
• Exam records sent directly from NCBTMB or FSMTB to the Division.

What It Costs

Item	Cost	Notes
Application and license fees	Set by IDFPR	All fees are non-refundable; check current amounts in CORE before applying
Fingerprinting	Varies by vendor	Illinois State Police processing, valid only 60 days
MBLEx exam	$265	Paid to FSMTB
Massage school (600 hrs)	Tuition varies widely	Must meet Section 1284.20 of the Administrative Code
Continuing education	Varies	Rising to 25 hours for the 2026 renewal
Illinois LLC	$150	Articles of organization, Illinois Secretary of State
Local massage establishment license	Varies — $550 per location in Chicago	No state establishment license, and no city may license you. The premises are a different question: Chicago renews every two years and inspects before granting

Before You Open a Practice: Premises and Out-of-State Licenses

Does Illinois license massage establishments?

The state does not — and no Illinois city may license you either. But that protection stops at the door of your treatment room, and the distinction is worth getting exactly right.

Start with the protection, because it is unusually strong. 225 ILCS 57/55, headed “Exclusive jurisdiction,” reads: “The regulation and licensing of massage therapy is an exclusive power and function of the State. A home rule unit may not regulate or license massage therapists.” The section goes on to declare itself “a denial and limitation of home rule powers and functions under subsection (h) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution” — Illinois did not merely preempt local rules, it withdrew the constitutional power to make them. If a municipality asks you for its own massage therapist license, Section 55 is the citation.

Now read the noun. Section 55 preempts the licensing of massage therapists. The Massage Licensing Act does not contain the phrase “massage establishment” anywhere — Illinois licenses no premises at state level, and Section 55 does not stop a municipality from licensing the business.

Chicago does precisely that. Under Municipal Code 4-6-320, a massage establishment license costs $550 per location and renews every two years. Two conditions attach that catch people planning a studio:

• An onsite inspection by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, which you must pass before the license is granted — not afterwards. Fit-out has to be finished and compliant before you can open.
• The establishment may not employ or contract with any massage therapist who does not hold a valid IDFPR license. The city enforces state licensure at the business level, so verifying every therapist’s license is the owner’s job.

Chicago’s definition excludes hospitals, nursing homes, and facilities or offices where a health care worker licensed by the State of Illinois provides professional health services — so a clinical setting may sit outside it.

The practical rule for Illinois: your license is yours and the city cannot touch it; your room is a municipal matter. Ask the city or village where you intend to operate whether it licenses massage establishments, and budget for an inspection before opening rather than after. Wherever you land, you must display your license, or a copy, in a conspicuous place in your primary office and at any other location where you render massage therapy services.

Can you transfer an out-of-state massage license to Illinois?

Yes, by endorsement — and Illinois applies a test that quietly favors therapists who have been licensed a long time. Under 225 ILCS 57/19, the Department may, in its discretion, license by endorsement an applicant licensed under the laws of another state or territory, on payment of the required fee, if the requirements for licensure in that state “were, at the date of his or her licensure, substantially equivalent to the requirements in force in this State on that date.”

Read that comparison carefully, because most states do not work this way. Illinois is not measuring your old state’s current rules against Illinois’s current 600-hour standard. It compares both states as they stood on the day you were originally licensed. A therapist licensed in another state in 2009 is measured against what Illinois required in 2009 — so training that would fall short of today’s requirement may still support endorsement. If you were told you would need to top up your hours, this is the provision to raise.

The deadline that costs money: applicants have 3 years from the date of application to complete the process. If it is not complete within three years, the application is denied, the fee is forfeited, and you must reapply and meet the requirements in effect at the time of reapplication — which means losing the favorable date test above. Do not file until your documents are moving.

Endorsement applicants may present the NCBTMB examination rather than the MBLEx. And one scheduling note worth knowing if you are planning a move: the sections of the Massage Licensing Act carry a scheduled repeal date of January 1, 2027. Illinois routinely reauthorizes its practice acts before they sunset, but check the Act’s current status if your timeline runs close to it.

The 60-Day Fingerprint Window Catches People Out

Illinois requires verification of electronic fingerprint processing from the Illinois State Police taken within the 60 days prior to application. Not 60 days before licensure — 60 days before you apply.

That inverts the natural order of operations. The instinct is to get the slow, bureaucratic item done first and assemble the rest at leisure. Do that here and the prints go stale while you wait on a transcript or an exam result, and you pay the vendor a second time. Get fingerprinted last, once your school transcript and exam record are in hand and you are ready to submit.

Two other Illinois specifics. Applications now run through CORE, the online system IDFPR launched in October 2024. And all Illinois massage licenses expire on December 31 of each even-numbered year regardless of issuance date, so a license granted in late even year is short-lived before its first renewal.

How to Get Licensed, In Order

1. Complete 600 clock hours at a program meeting Section 1284.20, with genuine on-site supervision.
2. Pass the MBLEx ($265 through FSMTB) and have the record sent directly to the Division.
3. Assemble everything else first — transcript, exam record, identity documents.
4. Then get fingerprinted through an approved Illinois State Police vendor, inside the 60-day window.
5. Apply through CORE, IDFPR’s online licensing system.
6. Opening a practice? Register the entity, check your municipality — Chicago licenses separately — and bind liability insurance before the first client.

Staying Licensed

Illinois massage licenses expire December 31 of each even-numbered year, regardless of when they were issued. Continuing education rises to 25 hours for the 2026 renewal, after a new hour of domestic violence and sexual assault awareness was added to the requirement. The mandated subjects inside that total are 2 hours of ethics, 1 hour of sexual harassment prevention, and 1 hour of domestic violence and sexual assault awareness. Courses must come from an IDFPR-approved CE sponsor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hours does Illinois require for a massage license?

600 clock hours of instruction from a massage therapy program meeting Section 1284.20 of the Administrative Code, or a substantially similar program from another jurisdiction. The hours must be supervised classroom and supervised hands-on instruction, where supervised means the supervisor is physically on site, qualified and immediately available.

What exam does Illinois require for a massage license?

The Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination (MBLEx) administered by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. Applicants licensed elsewhere applying by endorsement may instead show the NCBTMB examination.

How long are Illinois fingerprints valid for a massage application?

Only 60 days. Verification of electronic fingerprint processing from the Illinois State Police must have been taken within the 60 days prior to your application — get fingerprinted after your paperwork is otherwise ready, not before.

How much continuing education does Illinois require for massage therapists?

The requirement rises to 25 hours for the 2026 renewal, after a new hour of domestic violence and sexual assault awareness training was added. The mandated subjects are 2 hours of ethics, 1 hour of sexual harassment prevention, and 1 hour of domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.

Do you need a license to open a massage business in Illinois?

Not from the state, but often from your city. Illinois licenses no massage establishments and 225 ILCS 57/55 makes the regulation and licensing of massage therapy an exclusive power of the State, denying home rule units the power to license massage therapists. That preemption covers therapists, not premises: Chicago licenses massage establishments under Municipal Code 4-6-320 at $550 per location, renewable every two years, with an onsite inspection you must pass before the license is granted and a bar on employing any therapist who lacks a valid IDFPR license.

Can you transfer an out-of-state massage license to Illinois?

Yes, by endorsement under 225 ILCS 57/19, at the Department’s discretion. The test is whether the other state’s requirements were substantially equivalent to Illinois requirements as both stood on the date you were originally licensed, not as they stand today, which can help therapists licensed under older standards. Applicants have three years from the date of application to complete the process; miss it and the application is denied, the fee is forfeited, and you must reapply under the requirements in effect then.

Forming the company, taxes, insurance, and hiring are covered in our full guide to starting a business in Illinois.

Sources

Source	What It Covers
IDFPR — Qualifications for Licensure: Massage Therapist (227)	600 clock hours, definition of supervised, MBLEx and NCBTMB routes, 60-day Illinois State Police fingerprint window, December 31 even-year expiry
IDFPR — Massage Therapy	The profession page, CORE applications, forms
IDFPR — Massage Therapy Continuing Education Fact Sheet	CE total rising to 25 hours for the 2026 renewal, ethics, sexual harassment prevention, domestic violence and sexual assault awareness
FSMTB — MBLEx	MBLEx registration and $265 exam fee
225 ILCS 57 — Massage Licensing Act	Section 55 exclusive jurisdiction and the home rule denial, Section 19 endorsement and its date-of-licensure equivalence test and three-year deadline
Chicago Municipal Code § 4-6-320 — Massage establishments and massage services	The city establishment license, its scope and exclusions
City of Chicago — Massage Business Licensing	The $550 per location fee, two-year renewal, the pre-grant BACP inspection, and the requirement that therapists hold valid IDFPR licenses

Comparing states? See our massage license guides for every state we cover.