Virginia Medical License

Renewing a Virginia medical license costs $337 every two years, due in your birth month in even-numbered years, with 30 CME hours now required. A new license runs $302 through the DHP online portal and typically takes 8 to 12 weeks. Below: exact fees, renewal rules, and lookup steps.

Key Takeaways

How do you get a Virginia medical license? Step by step

You apply online through the Department of Health Professions (DHP) licensing portal, pay the $302 fee, and submit primary-source verification of your education, training, and exams. Complete files move; incomplete ones sit until they hit the 180-day expiration wall. Endorsement and initial applicants pay the same fee and use the same portal.

1. Create an account in DHP Online Licensing (accessed July 17, 2026) and pick the correct profession in the wizard. Paper applications are not accepted for an initial MD or DO license.
2. Pay the $302 application fee. It is nonrefundable, and the Board does not touch your file until the fee clears.
3. Order every verification on day one, in parallel: medical school transcript, postgraduate training verification, USMLE or COMLEX-USA transcripts, and license verifications from other states. FCVS is accepted and pays off if Virginia is not your last license.
4. Submit your National Practitioner Data Bank self-query. It expires six months after issuance, so order it once your slower documents are already in motion.
5. Answer Board follow-ups fast. Clean files are reviewed on a rolling basis without waiting for a board meeting.
6. After issuance, pull up your own record in the DHP License Lookup and confirm the status reads Current Active before your start date.

Virginia medical license requirements

Virginia licenses MDs and DOs through a single board, the Virginia Board of Medicine, under § 54.1-2930 of the Code of Virginia (accessed July 17, 2026). You need a degree from a board-recognized school, passing scores on USMLE or COMLEX-USA, and at least 12 months of postgraduate training completed in one accredited program.

• Education: graduation from an institution approved by an accrediting agency the Board recognizes (18VAC85-20-121).
• Examination: USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or a board-approved equivalent, with all steps passed inside a 10-year window under 18VAC85-20-140 (accessed July 20, 2026).
• Postgraduate training: 12 months as an intern or resident in one approved program. Virginia counts a single continuous program, not stitched-together months.
• Professional history: a chronological record of activities since graduation (or the last 10 years) plus standard background disclosures.

International medical graduates add an ECFMG certificate under 18VAC85-20-122, though proof of licensure in another U.S. state or Canadian province can substitute for it. The postgraduate training requirement for IMGs is likewise one year in a single approved program under the current regulation. And a quirk worth knowing: this one board also licenses podiatrists and chiropractors, so the application wizard lists professions you would never expect. In our experience helping physicians across all 50 states, picking the wrong profession in Virginia’s unified DHP wizard causes more grief than any credential requirement, because the record lands under the wrong board and takes real effort to unwind.

How much does a Virginia medical license cost?

It costs $302 to apply and $337 to renew every two years, set by 18VAC85-20-22 (accessed July 17, 2026). Late renewal adds $115 within the first cycle, and a license expired for two or more years requires a $497 reinstatement. Physician assistants pay $130 to apply and $135 at renewal.

How does Virginia compare to neighboring states?

Virginia is one of the cheaper states in the region to get and keep a license. The $302 application fee compares to $400 in North Carolina and $400 in West Virginia. Long-term costs tell a similar story: at $337 every two years, Virginia works out to about $169 per year, versus roughly $155 in Tennessee ($310 biennially), $200 in West Virginia, and $250 in North Carolina, which renews every single year. See the full 50-state comparison in our hardest and easiest states ranking.

How long does a Virginia medical license take?

Plan on 8 to 12 weeks for a complete application. The Board does not publish a fixed average, and the timeline depends mostly on how quickly your primary-source verifications arrive, not on Board review itself. Clean files are approved on a rolling weekly basis rather than held for bimonthly board meetings.

From the applications we process, the slow item in Virginia is almost never the Board. It is the medical school transcript or a prior state’s verification arriving in week nine of a file that was otherwise done in week three. There is also a statutory fast lane: physicians already licensed in a contiguous state (Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolina) get a streamlined endorsement review with a final determination within 20 days of a completed application under § 54.1-2927 (accessed July 17, 2026).

How do you verify a Virginia medical license?

Use the free DHP License Lookup (accessed July 17, 2026). It covers every profession the Department of Health Professions regulates, so the same search verifies a doctor’s license, a physician assistant, a nurse, or a pharmacist, by name, license number, or location. This is the primary source Virginia employers and payers rely on.

1. Open the DHP License Lookup and choose search by name, license number, or location. Partial last names work if you are unsure of spelling.
2. Open the matching record and check the status field. Current Active with a future expiration date means the license is in good standing.
3. Confirm the details you actually care about: license number, original issue date, expiration date, and occupation (MD and DO both sit under the Board of Medicine).
4. Scroll to board actions. Disciplinary orders are public documents attached directly to the record, so a physician license with history shows it here.
5. Need formal proof for another jurisdiction? The Board issues a letter of verification for $10; the free lookup screen is enough for employment and credentialing checks.

A few practical notes from the lookups our team runs during credentialing. To check a DO, search the same system: Virginia does not run a separate osteopathic board. To look up a nurse, the Board of Nursing records live in the same DHP database, so nursing license verification follows identical steps. And to confirm a provider’s federal identifiers alongside the state check, pair the DHP search with our NPI lookup tool. If you need to validate an MD license status for payer enrollment, screenshot the record with its date visible; most payers accept it as primary-source verification.

Virginia medical license renewal: fees, cycle, and CME

Virginia medical license renewal costs $337 and happens every two years, during your birth month in even-numbered years. PAs renew in odd-numbered years for $135. Since February 27, 2025, physicians attest to 30 Type 1 CME hours per cycle, half the old 60-hour requirement.

The birth-month mechanics matter more than they look. Renewal is due by the last day of your birth month in the even-numbered year regardless of when the license was issued, so a physician licensed in January with a March birthday renews within months of getting the license. Miss the deadline and the late fee raises the bill to $452 within the first cycle. Let the license sit expired for two years and renewal is no longer an option: reinstatement costs $497, and practicing on an expired license invites discipline. If tracking cycles across states is the part you keep dropping, our automated license renewal service exists for exactly this failure mode.

Virginia cut its physician CME requirement in half in 2025: 30 Type 1 hours per renewal cycle, down from 60.

Virginia CME requirements (2026)

The current rule is 30 hours of Type 1 continuing learning activities per two-year cycle, from an accredited sponsor or profession-sanctioned organization, under 18VAC85-20-235 as amended effective February 27, 2025 (accessed July 17, 2026). Older guides still quote 60 hours with a 30-hour Category 1 floor and a carry-over allowance; that language is gone from the regulation. Three details survive the rewrite: your first biennial renewal after initial Virginia licensure is exempt, you must keep supporting documentation for six years because the Board audits a random sample after renewal, and the Board can grant a one-year extension for good cause if you ask before your renewal date.

Two overlays sit on top of the 30 hours. First, under § 54.1-2928.3, the Board may direct up to two of those hours into a designated topic; it used that power to require one hour of human trafficking education for the 2024 and 2025 renewal cycles, and the notice still headlines the Board’s site, so read the attestation questions on your renewal form for the current designated topic. Second, a new 2026 law, § 54.1-2928.4, requires bias reduction training at every biennial renewal for Board of Medicine and Board of Nursing licensees; implementing regulations are being written now, so expect it on upcoming renewal forms. Separately, DEA registrants carry the one-time federal 8-hour training on substance use disorders tied to DEA registration.

Physician assistant renewal in Virginia

PAs renew biennially in their birth month in odd-numbered years for $135, with a $50 late fee inside the first cycle. Since a July 2025 amendment to 18VAC85-50-56, Virginia no longer counts state CME hours for PAs at all: you verify compliance with NCCPA continuing medical education standards (100 credits per two-year cycle under NCCPA’s own rules), and a lapsed NCCPA certification means the Board no longer considers you licensed. A PA license expired more than two years requires a $180 reinstatement application with evidence of current certification.

Endorsement, reciprocity, and the IMLC question

Virginia is not a member of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, one of only a handful of states still outside it, so there is no compact shortcut into the Commonwealth. Physicians licensed elsewhere use licensure by endorsement, and the bar dropped in 2025: you need a current, active license in another U.S. jurisdiction or Canada and two years of practice out of the last five, for the same $302 fee.

Those two years do not have to be consecutive. The rest of the gate still holds: your most recent out-of-state license must be current and unrestricted (or lapsed but eligible for renewal), you need current board certification from the American Board of Medical Specialties, the Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists, or one of the recognized podiatric and Canadian bodies, and a fresh NPDB report goes in the file, per 18VAC85-20-141 as amended February 27, 2025 (accessed July 20, 2026). Fall short on any prong and the Board reroutes you to the initial pathway.

Two more openings are worth knowing. The 20-day contiguous-state determination described above applies to endorsement files from Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. And a $25 temporary authorization covers up to three months of practice for camp physicians, CE programs, and free-clinic volunteering under § 54.1-2927(B). Compact bills were introduced in Richmond in 2022 and 2023 and did not pass; check imlcc.com (accessed July 17, 2026) before assuming the map has changed.

Virginia telemedicine rules

Treating a patient located in Virginia requires a Virginia license, including by telemedicine. State law defines telemedicine services narrowly and excludes audio-only telephone, email, fax, and online questionnaires. Prescribing requires a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship under § 54.1-3303(A), and prescribing Schedule II through V controlled substances via telemedicine must also satisfy § 54.1-3408.01 plus federal DEA telemedicine rules (accessed July 17, 2026). If your telehealth panel includes Virginians, treat the license as non-negotiable and the prescribing statutes as the design constraint for your intake flow.

FAQ about Virginia medical licensure

Written by the Medicallicensing Team. Reviewed by David Ivaniuk, CEO Medicallicensing. Published July 2026. Last updated July 17, 2026.

References

1. Virginia Board of Medicine, Department of Health Professions. dhp.virginia.gov/Boards/Medicine/ (accessed July 17, 2026).
2. 18VAC85-20-22, Required fees. Virginia Administrative Code, law.lis.virginia.gov (accessed July 17, 2026).
3. 18VAC85-20-235, Continued competency requirements, as amended eff. February 27, 2025. Virginia Administrative Code (accessed July 17, 2026).
4. 18VAC85-50, Regulations Governing the Practice of Physician Assistants (fees, renewal, reinstatement), as amended eff. July 17, 2025 and April 9, 2026. Virginia Administrative Code (accessed July 17, 2026).
5. Initial Application Instructions for MD and DO License (Rev. 01/2025). Virginia Department of Health Professions, license.dhp.virginia.gov (accessed July 17, 2026).
6. Code of Virginia §§ 54.1-2927, 54.1-2928.3, 54.1-2928.4, 54.1-2930, 54.1-3303, 54.1-3408.01. law.lis.virginia.gov (accessed July 17, 2026).
7. DHP License Lookup. dhp.virginiainteractive.org/lookup/index (accessed July 17, 2026).
8. Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission, Participating States. imlcc.com (accessed July 17, 2026).
9. North Carolina Medical Board, renewal fees; West Virginia Board of Medicine, application instructions; Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, Rule 0880-02 fees (accessed July 17, 2026).
10. NCCPA, certification maintenance requirements. nccpa.net (accessed July 17, 2026).