GUNMAPUSA Search

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. The nonresident permit under § 18.2-308.06 uses the same 21-year minimum. 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. 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 filing renewals at least 2 months before 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.' No fingerprints are required. 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.

RESIDENT permit: Va. Code § 18.2-308.03 caps the total at $50 — $10 to the circuit court clerk for processing/issuance, up to $35 to the local law-enforcement agency for the background investigation, and up to $5 to the State Police. 'The total amount assessed for processing an application for a permit shall not exceed $50.' Renewal is subject to the same $50 cap. Fee waivers: no fee is charged for qualifying retired law-enforcement and correctional officers (15+ years of service or age 55+) and retired magistrates. NONRESIDENT permit: a separate $100 non-refundable fee payable to the Virginia State Police (§ 18.2-308.06 caps it at $100), 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 (Concealed Handgun Permit Application) and file it, in writing or electronically, with the clerk of the circuit court of the county or city where you reside. 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, submit fingerprints on an FD-258 Applicant Fingerprint Card taken by a law-enforcement agency, include proof of in-person competence, 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).

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 2026-08-10: 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: Va. Code § 18.2-308.5:2, 'Prohibition on unfinished frames or receivers and unserialized firearms; penalties,' takes effect JANUARY 1, 2027. From that date it is unlawful to knowingly import, purchase, sell, or transfer an unfinished frame or receiver without a valid serial number (subsection B), to manufacture or assemble a firearm lacking a valid serial number (subsection D), and to manufacture a firearm for sale or transfer without the required federal license (subsection E). Subsection C — prohibiting mere POSSESSION of a firearm or an unfinished frame or receiver lacking a valid serial number — is delayed to JULY 1, 2027. '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: Class 1 misdemeanor for a first violation, Class 4 FELONY for a subsequent violation. 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 (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 the 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. 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 carries no 'last updated' or revision date (only a 2026 copyright footer), so I cannot confirm how recently the enumerated list was refreshed. The statutory rule (§ 18.2-308.014: recognize all states that issue permits) makes it self-updating in substance.
  • MAJOR PENDING CHANGE, unresolved: the version of § 18.2-308.014 effective July 1, 2027 replaces blanket recognition with a 'substantially similar law' test and directs the Attorney General and State Police to publish qualifying-state lists. Those lists do not exist yet, so post-2027-07-01 recognition is unknown. Re-verify before that date.
  • Va. Code § 18.2-308.5:2 (unserialized/self-manufactured firearms) is NOT yet in force — its LIS header reads 'Effective January 1, 2027,' with subsection C (possession) delayed to July 1, 2027. I read those dates from the LIS statute header; I did not independently confirm the enacting chapter number or that no further delay or amendment passed in the 2026 session.
  • I could not verify a published turnaround time for NONRESIDENT permits; VSP publishes no service-level estimate, only a recommendation to renew 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 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; the older locality-ordinance fingerprint option no longer appears in the statute. Fingerprints ARE required for the NONRESIDENT permit (FD-258 card, § 18.2-308.06). A single boolean cannot express both.
  • Web search tooling was unavailable for this run (session search quota exhausted), so all findings come from directly fetched official URLs on vsp.virginia.gov and law.lis.virginia.gov. I could not sweep for a recent VSP press release or a 2026-session bill that might postdate those pages.
  • Fee-waiver thresholds under § 18.2-308.03 for retired law-enforcement/correctional officers and retired magistrates (15+ years of service or age 55+) were summarized from the statute and should be re-read in full text before an individual applicant relies on them.

Sources