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Virginia Concealed Carry Permit

Virginia requires a Concealed Handgun Permit to carry. It is shall-issue, the minimum age is 21, and training is required.

Requirements at a glance

Permit name Concealed Handgun Permit
Issuing authority Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county or city where the applicant resides (resident permits); Virginia Department of State Police, Firearms Transaction Center (nonresident permits)
System shall-issue
Minimum age 21 — Va. Code § 18.2-308.02(A): "Any person 21 years of age or older may apply in writing or electronically" to the clerk of the circuit court of the county or city of residence (or, for a member of the U.S. Armed Forces stationed outside the Commonwealth, the county or city in which he is domiciled). The nonresident permit under § 18.2-308.06 uses the same 21-year minimum: 'Nonresidents of the Commonwealth 21 years of age or older may apply in writing to the Virginia Department of State Police for a five-year permit.' No statutory exception lowers the age for active-duty military or any other class. Note also that § 18.2-308.014 conditions recognition of an out-of-state permit on the holder being at least 21, so an 18-20-year-old with a valid out-of-state permit is NOT recognized in Virginia.
Training required Yes
State fee $50 initial / $50 renewal — the state's own charge, not the total
Valid for 5 years
Processing time Resident: the circuit court must issue or deny within 45 days of a complete application — 'The court shall issue the permit within 45 days of receipt of the completed application.' If the court has not acted within 45 days, the applicant is entitled to a "de facto" permit — a copy of the time-stamped application serves as a permit valid for 90 days while processing continues. Nonresident: the Virginia State Police publish no stated turnaround; VSP advises that 'It is suggested that all renewal application packages be submitted at least 2 months prior to expiration.'
Fingerprints Not required
Non-resident permit Available

What it actually costs

The state fee is rarely the whole bill. Fingerprinting is usually charged by a private vendor, training is bought from an instructor, and several states add photographs, notarisation or other requirements on top.

State fee $50
Training course $75–$250 (private instructor)
Non-resident permit $100 — capped separately by § 18.2-308.06
Realistic total $125–$300

Va. Code § 18.2-308.03 caps the whole government charge: $10 to the circuit court clerk, up to $35 to the local law enforcement agency for the background investigation and up to $5 to the State Police, with the flat instruction that 'the total amount assessed for processing an application for a permit shall not exceed $50.' Section 18.2-308.03 was not amended in the 2026 session. No fingerprints are required for the resident permit. Virginia sets no minimum hours and no live-fire requirement — § 18.2-308.02(B) lets competence be shown several ways, including a hunter-education course or prior military service, so an applicant who already qualifies pays only the $50. Fee is fully waived for retired Virginia magistrates and for retired law-enforcement officers and ABC special agents with 15 years of service or age 55+.

RESIDENT permit: Va. Code § 18.2-308.03 caps the total at $50. 'The clerk shall charge a fee of $10 for the processing of an application or issuing of a permit'; 'The local law-enforcement agency conducting the background investigation may charge a fee not to exceed $35'; 'The State Police may charge a fee not to exceed $5'; and 'The total amount assessed for processing an application for a permit shall not exceed $50.' Renewal is subject to the same $50 cap. Section 18.2-308.03 does not appear in the Code of Virginia's 2026 update list, so these amounts are unchanged. Fee waivers (read in full text on 2026-09-15): 'No fee shall be charged for the issuance of such permit to a person who has retired from service (i) as a magistrate in the Commonwealth; (ii) as a special agent with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority or as a law-enforcement officer ... after completing 15 years of service or after reaching age 55.' NONRESIDENT permit: a separate fee payable to the Virginia State Police — § 18.2-308.06 provides that 'The Department of State Police may charge a fee not to exceed $100 to cover the cost of the background check and issuance of the permit,' and the VSP nonresident page states the fee is '$100.00, made payable to the Virginia State Police,' by money order or cashier's check.

How to apply

  1. Confirm you are 21 or older and not disqualified under Va. Code § 18.2-308.09.
  2. Complete the demonstration-of-competence requirement IN PERSON via one of the nine methods in § 18.2-308.02(B) (hunter safety course, NRA/USCCA course, certified-instructor course, documented military service, etc.) and obtain a certificate or instructor affidavit. Online-only certificates are not accepted.
  3. RESIDENT: complete Virginia State Police form SP-248 (Application for Concealed Handgun Permit, revised 11-24-2025) and file it, in writing or electronically, with the clerk of the circuit court of the county or city where you reside. Electronic submission is expressly authorized by § 18.2-308.02(A) as amended by 2026, c. 1034. There is no minimum Virginia residency period.
  4. RESIDENT: attach proof of competence and present one valid government-issued photo ID. Fingerprints are NOT required for the resident permit; § 18.2-308.02 provides that 'No information or documentation other than that which is allowed on the application in accordance with this section may be requested or required by the clerk or the court.'
  5. RESIDENT: pay the fee — total capped at $50 ($10 clerk + up to $35 local law enforcement + up to $5 State Police).
  6. RESIDENT: the court must rule within 45 days; if it does not, the time-stamped application functions as a de facto permit for 90 days.
  7. NONRESIDENT: apply directly to the Virginia State Police Firearms Transaction Center on form SP-248, submit fingerprints on an Applicant Fingerprint Card FD-258 taken by a law-enforcement agency, include proof of in-person competence, two photographs, a photocopy of photo ID, and a $100 money order or cashier's check.
  8. Renewal: apply within 90-180 days before expiration; resident renewals may be done by mail without a personal appearance and require no new demonstration of competence (§ 18.2-308.010). Nonresident renewals should be filed at least 2 months before expiration.

Apply on the official Virginia site

What disqualifies you

Where to get the required training

Virginia does not publish a central list of certified instructors. Confirm directly with Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county or city where the applicant resides (resident permits); Virginia Department of State Police, Firearms Transaction Center (nonresident permits) that a course will be accepted before you pay for it.

Training providers in Virginia

Businesses in our directory that offer firearms training. These are not state-verified as certified permit instructors — check against the official list above, or ask the provider directly.

All firearms training in Virginia →

Reciprocity

Carrying into Virginia

Virginia recognizes permits from 51 other jurisdictions.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

33 jurisdictions honor a Virginia permit

Derived from what each of those states officially publishes.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

Official Virginia reciprocity page Full reciprocity matrix →

Building your own in Virginia

Build for personal use
Allowed
Serial number required
No

AS OF 2026-09-15: Virginia has no statute of general application prohibiting an individual from manufacturing or assembling a firearm for personal use, and no state law currently requires a serial number or state registration on a self-made firearm (Virginia maintains no firearm registry). Federal law still applies. Two limits exist today: (1) Va. Code § 18.2-308.5 makes it unlawful to 'knowingly manufacture or assemble, cause to be manufactured or assembled, import, purchase, sell, offer for sale, transfer, or possess (i) any plastic firearm or (ii) any firearm that, after removal of all parts other than a major component, is not detectable as a firearm' — a Class 5 FELONY, so undetectable/plastic builds are already illegal; and (2) manufacturing for sale requires a federal firearms license. THIS CHANGES SOON, and the effective dates were re-confirmed on 2026-09-15: Va. Code § 18.2-308.5:2, 'Prohibition on unfinished frames or receivers and unserialized firearms; penalties,' enacted by 2026, c. 532, still carries the header '(Effective January 1, 2027)'. From that date it is unlawful to knowingly import, purchase, sell, offer for sale, or transfer ownership of any completed or unfinished frame or receiver without a valid serial number (subsection B), to manufacture or assemble a firearm that 'is not imprinted with a valid serial number' (subsection D), and for an unlicensed person to sell or transfer a firearm he manufactured or caused to be manufactured (subsection E). Subsection C carries its own delayed header, '(Effective July 1, 2027) It is unlawful to knowingly possess a firearm or any completed or unfinished frame or receiver that is not imprinted with a valid serial number.' 'Unfinished frame or receiver' is defined as 'a forging, casting, printing, extrusion, machined body, or similar item that (i) is designed to or may readily be completed, assembled, or otherwise converted to function as a frame or receiver or (ii) is marketed or sold to the public to become or be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm once completed, assembled, or otherwise converted.' A 'valid serial number' is one imprinted by a federal licensee or assigned under state or federal law. Penalty: 'A violation of this section is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor. A second or subsequent violation of this section is punishable as a Class 4 felony.' Practical effect: building a firearm for personal use is lawful in Virginia today, but anyone doing so should arrange serialization by a federal licensee before January 1, 2027, and MUST have any home-built firearm serialized by July 1, 2027 to lawfully continue possessing it. Separately, § 18.2-308.5:1 makes manufacturing or possessing an auto sear or trigger activator a Class 6 felony.

Va. Code § 18.2-308.5:2 (2026, c. 532; effective January 1, 2027, subsection C effective July 1, 2027); Va. Code § 18.2-308.5

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

Statutes

What we could not confirm

  • VALIDATION NOTE (addressing a prior failure): Virginia's official VSP reciprocity page genuinely names four U.S. territories — Puerto Rico (PR), Guam (GU), Northern Mariana Islands (MP), and U.S. Virgin Islands (VI) — as jurisdictions whose permits Virginia recognizes. Re-confirmed on the live page 2026-09-15. Those entries reflect reality, not researcher error. They were removed from the honors array only because the schema's postal-code set rejects non-state codes; they are documented explicitly in reciprocity.notes. If the consuming system can accept territory codes, PR, GU, MP, and VI should be added back to honors.
  • 'VA' appears in the honors array because Virginia's own published list literally enumerates 'Virginia' among the recognized jurisdictions. If the downstream consumer treats honors as strictly out-of-state, VA should be dropped.
  • Vermont appears on Virginia's recognition list even though Vermont issues no concealed carry permit, so that entry is effectively inoperative. Virginia recognizes permits, not another state's permitless-carry status — a Vermonter carrying with no permit gets no recognition in Virginia.
  • The VSP reciprocity page still carries no 'last updated' or revision date (only a copyright footer), re-checked 2026-09-15, so I cannot confirm how recently the enumerated list was refreshed. The statutory rule now in force (§ 18.2-308.014, version effective until July 1, 2027: recognize all states that issue permits) makes it self-updating in substance, so a stale page is low-risk until July 1, 2027.
  • MAJOR PENDING CHANGE, still unresolved: the version of § 18.2-308.014 enacted by 2026, c. 879 and effective July 1, 2027 replaces blanket recognition with a 'substantially similar law' test and provides that 'The Office of the Attorney General shall determine, and the Department of State Police shall publish on its website, any state that meets the requirements and qualifications of this subsection.' As of 2026-09-15 no such list has been published on the VSP site, so post-2027-07-01 recognition is unknown and the honors array WILL need to be rebuilt. Re-verify before 2027-07-01.
  • Several commercial gun-law sites claim Virginia already ended universal recognition during 2026 and that the Attorney General was required to revoke reciprocity agreements by December 1, 2026. I could not substantiate either claim from any primary source: the Code shows the blanket-recognition version of § 18.2-308.014 in force until July 1, 2027, neither version contains a December 1, 2026 date, and the VSP list is unchanged. Treat those secondary claims as unverified; if a Virginia budget-bill enactment clause does impose such a deadline it would be outside the codified text I was able to read.
  • The new LIS bill-detail site (lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/...) is a JavaScript application that does not render for a plain fetch, and the legacy renderer (legacylis.virginia.gov) returns 'document does not exist' for 2026-session chapters. I therefore could not read the enacted texts of 2026 cc. 532, 879, 1034, 1106, or 1107 directly. Their effect was established from the codified section text and the chapter citations in the Code's own history lines, which is the authoritative statutory text; the bill texts themselves remain unread.
  • I could not verify a published turnaround time for NONRESIDENT permits; VSP publishes no service-level estimate, only a recommendation to submit renewals at least 2 months early. The 45-day / de-facto-permit rule applies to resident circuit-court applications only.
  • No official Virginia registry of state-certified concealed-handgun-permit firearms instructors exists. DCJS certifies firearms instructors under its Private Security Services program (page live and re-checked 2026-09-15) but publishes no searchable public list, and that program is not CHP-specific — so instructorRegistryUrl is null rather than merely unlocated.
  • fingerprintsRequired is FALSE for the standard RESIDENT permit: § 18.2-308.02 requires only one government-issued photo ID and bars the clerk or court from requiring documentation beyond what the section allows. Fingerprints ARE required for the NONRESIDENT permit (FD-258 card, § 18.2-308.06). A single boolean cannot express both; a reader applying as a nonresident should not rely on this field.
  • INFRASTRUCTURE NOTE for the link checker: vsp.virginia.gov serves an INCOMPLETE TLS certificate chain — an openssl handshake on 2026-09-15 returned only the depth-0 leaf (CN=vsp.virginia.gov, O=Virginia IT Agency) with no intermediate. Clients that fetch the missing intermediate via AIA succeed; stricter clients may fail validation. All four vsp.virginia.gov URLs in this record nonetheless returned HTTP 200 on 2026-09-15 and are the correct live URLs. The older host www.vsp.state.va.us no longer connects at all and must not be substituted. Do not treat a chain warning on these URLs as a dead link.
  • training.hours is null because Virginia prescribes no minimum hour count at all, not because the number is unknown. Any downstream display that renders null as '0 hours' or 'unknown' would mislead; the correct rendering is 'no minimum set by statute'.

Sources