For New York City, once you have your state PI License, contact your local police station for the instructions to obtain a gun permit.
Lifetime Corporate Members never have to go out looking for a sponsor. IPIU will always do that for you. We have over 40,000 contacts to get several sponsors for you. There is no list to give you. We perform a telephone interview with prospective sponsors and verify their credentials. Then we simply provide you with the applicant(s) who wishes to sponsor your agency so that you can meet or speak to them in order to make your choice. The last one we did in Pennsylvania had over 70 licensed sponsors for the owner to choose from.
The sponsorship benefit through IPIU requires a corporation, because your sponsor has to be listed on the corporate documents as a sponsor.
OR:
1) If you already have the 3-years experience (6000+ earned hours as an employed investigator) to qualify for an individual state PI license, then you can go ahead and apply now individually without incorporating yourself. But your personal name will be exposed and becomes a public record in New York as a licensed PI. Or, you can have IPIU incorporate you anonymously to protect your personal name and personal assets (in case their is a lawsuit later against you)
2) If you do NOT have the 3-years experience (6000+ earned hours as an employed investigator) to qualify for an individual state PI license, then you would have to locate a willing licensed PI or agency to provide you with full time employment for the next 3 years (or the next 6 years if part-time) in order to FIRST qualify for your personal individual PI license.
3) Remember, running any business as an individual and not a corporation has many risks and limitations involved. Setting up the proper corporation through IPIU will allow you to obtain an "agency license" which can employ as many licensed PI's with their names becoming part of a pubic record. Also, your corporation "lifetime membership" (through IPIU) provides for two ADDITIONAL FREE PERSONAL LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS for either your family, partner, or colleague. For more on why you need a corporation:
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Your part may take approximately 5-6 weeks. Once you have passed the online training manual as a private investigator member, and have received your PI Union License, then upon the posting of your official sponsor instructions in your new agency forum, our part (the labor and professional review) can take approximately 5-6 business days to get all of your corporate applications and documents prepared with your approval. Once approved, it takes approximately 7 days to complete the telephone interviews for us to provide you with the name(s) and contact details of who you want to choose for a sponsor. Once you make your choice (based on either your interview or phone call with your prospective sponsor(s) and the documents are all signed, then you are preapproved for your agency license and the hard copy license is printed and mailed to you (generally in a few weeks, depending on the state)
Yes.
Another role you will have is President of the PI Agency, which gives you the authority to sign off on other employees your agency wants to "hire".
Your sponsor will simply be one of your vice presidents of the PI Agency you own, and will only work spare-time cases you need worked that you cannot work.
You can then start advertising as a licensed PI and start working cases. Pay yourself a full time 40 hour salary (no matter how small in dollars) for the next 3 years. Your company books will show you (in 3 years) have worked full time as a private investigator for a licensed agency. You can then proceed to qualify as your own sponsor at that time for your own agency.
As for you sponsor for the next three years, I suspect by then you will keep your sponsor on as a regular spare-time PI for his/her specialized skills, resources, and abilities. A 3-year relationship is worth keeping when it no longer requires you of anything.