Pennsylvania PALS License Verification Scraper

Scrape PALS (Pennsylvania Licensing System), the official public license-verification portal for Pennsylvania's Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (BPOA). Search by licensee name, exact license number, profession/board, or facility/business name, and get licensee identity, license number, license type, profession, board, status, issue/expiration/renewal dates, address, and any disciplinary actions on file. No login required.

What this actor does

• Four search modes: byName, byLicenseNumber, byProfession, byFacility
• 32 boards/professions covered in one tool — Accountancy, Cosmetology, Engineers, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Real Estate Commission, Social Work, Veterinary Medicine, and more
• Detail enrichment (optional): issue date, expiration date, last renewal date, status-effective date, disciplinary actions, and related/sponsoring licenses
• Filters: license status, Pennsylvania county, US state, license-type keyword
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains fields PALS actually returned

Output per license record

• licenseeName / firstName, middleName, lastName — for person records
• facilityName — for facility/business records
• licenseNumber
• licenseType — e.g. Certified Public Accountant, Registered Nurse
• profession — e.g. Accountancy, Nursing
• board — e.g. State Board of Accountancy
• status — Active / Inactive / Expired / Null and Void
• statusCategory — normalized: active / inactive / expired / nullAndVoid
• statusEffectiveDate, issueDate, expirationDate, lastRenewalDate, nextRenewalDate, associationDate
• city, state, county, country, zip, streetAddress, fullAddress
• disciplinaryActions[] — action description + complaint number, when on file
• relatedLicenses[] — sponsoring/associated licenses, when applicable
• personId, licenseId — PALS' own internal identifiers
• sourceUrl — the PALS search portal URL
• recordType: "license", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byName	byName / byLicenseNumber / byProfession / byFacility
lastName	string	Smith	Licensee last name (mode=byName)
firstName	string	–	First name (mode=byName)
middleName	string	–	Middle name (mode=byName)
licenseNumber	string	–	Exact license number (mode=byLicenseNumber)
facilityName	string	–	Business/facility name (mode=byFacility)
facilityStreetAddress	string	–	Street address (mode=byFacility)
profession	string	–	Board/profession code (mode=byProfession; optional filter otherwise)
licenseType	string	–	Free-text license-type keyword, matched against each result
city	string	–	City filter
zip	string	–	ZIP code filter
county	string	–	Pennsylvania county filter (67 counties)
state	string	–	US state filter (name/facility/profession searches also return out-of-state licensees)
statusFilter	string	any	any / active / inactive / expired / nullAndVoid
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Enrich each result with its full detail record
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap (1–200)

Example: search by name

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: search by license number

{
  "mode": "byLicenseNumber",
  "licenseNumber": "AA002213L"
}

Example: browse a profession/board

{
  "mode": "byProfession",
  "profession": "27",
  "county": "Philadelphia",
  "statusFilter": "active",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: search by facility/business name

{
  "mode": "byFacility",
  "facilityName": "Care",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Use cases

• Employment screening — verify a professional's license status before hiring
• Compliance teams — bulk-check license status/expiration across a roster
• Consumer protection — confirm a contractor, cosmetologist, or real estate agent is actively licensed
• Legal & HR due diligence — pull disciplinary history for a licensee
• Market research — count active licensees by profession or county

FAQ

What is the data source? The Pennsylvania Department of State's PALS portal (pals.pa.gov), the official public license-verification system for the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. Data is public record, updated daily by the Commonwealth.

Is this affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of State? No. This is an independent third-party actor that uses PALS' public search feature.

Why do some records have fewer fields than others? PALS only returns fields the licensee's profession/record type has data for. Facility records don't have a licenseeName; person records don't have a facilityName. Detail-only fields (dates, disciplinary actions) only appear when fetchDetails is enabled.

Why isn't a phone number or email included? PALS' underlying API happens to include a licensee's phone/email in some responses, but this actor deliberately excludes them — they aren't part of license verification and bulk-exporting personal contact details isn't the intended use of a public license-lookup tool.

Does this actor search disciplinary actions directly? PALS' UI offers a dedicated "Disciplinary" search radio button, but disciplinary records didn't return distinct results through PALS' public search endpoint during testing (it appears to require the logged-in staff portal). Disciplinary-action data is still available per-licensee via disciplinaryActions[] on any byName/byLicenseNumber/byFacility/byProfession result when fetchDetails is enabled.

How fresh is the data? PALS states its database is updated on a daily basis directly from the Pennsylvania Licensing System.

Can I search across all 32 professions at once? Yes — byName, byLicenseNumber, and byFacility search across every board by default. Use profession to narrow to one board, or mode=byProfession to browse a single board's full roster.

What counts as "Null and Void" status? A PALS-specific status meaning the license was voided (distinct from Expired or Inactive) — usually due to non-renewal beyond the grace period or a formal revocation-adjacent action.