How to Get Your Virginia Nursing License

How Virginia Issues Nursing Licenses: The Unified DHP System

Virginia administers nursing licensure through the Virginia Board of Nursing, housed under the Department of Health Professions (DHP) — the same unified agency that handles every regulated health profession in the Commonwealth. Applications are submitted through DHP's single online licensing portal at license.dhp.virginia.gov. The Board application fee is $190 for RN licensure (examination or endorsement) and $170 for LPN licensure (examination or endorsement). NCLEX itself costs an additional $200 paid directly to Pearson VUE. Every initial applicant — examination or endorsement, RN or LPN — must complete a fingerprint-based criminal background check processed through the Virginia State Police and the FBI before a license is issued. Initial applications are online-only; the only paper form available is for repeat NCLEX examinees.

Virginia and the NLC

Virginia is a fully participating Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) state. Virginia joined the original NLC on January 1, 2005, withdrew to adopt the enhanced compact, and resumed full participation when the enhanced NLC (eNLC) took effect on January 19, 2018. RNs and LPNs whose Primary State of Residence (PSOR) is Virginia are eligible for a multistate license that authorizes practice in every other NLC state without separate licensure. PSOR is established by Virginia driver's license, Virginia voter registration card, or DD Form 2058 for active-duty military or military spouses — note that federal tax returns alone are not on Virginia's accepted-proof list. If you move to Virginia from another compact state, you must apply for a Virginia multistate license and the prior state's multistate privilege is deactivated. Holding two compact multistate licenses simultaneously is not permitted.

Where Most Virginia Applications Get Stuck

Four Virginia-specific issues drive most delays:

• The DHP unified portal. Because the portal is shared across every health profession, selecting the wrong profession in the application wizard creates a record under the wrong board and means restarting. Choose "Nursing — Registered Nurse" or "Nursing — Licensed Practical Nurse" carefully at the very first step.
• Fingerprint-based criminal background check. Virginia processes fingerprints through Virginia State Police-approved vendors, and the Board will not issue a license — including a multistate compact license — until results are returned. Out-of-state fingerprint cards are not accepted.
• Nursys verification routing. For endorsement applicants, originating-state verification must come directly through Nursys (or paper-routed from the issuing board). Applicants who upload their own license copy rather than initiating Nursys verification are commonly delayed.
• Out-of-country credential evaluations. International nursing graduates must submit a CGFNS or Josef Silny & Associates evaluation, and the Board will not begin substantive review until the evaluation is on file. This routinely adds 8-16 weeks at the front of the process.

What You'll Pay

Virginia application fees are mid-range nationally. RN examination applicants pay $190 to the Board plus $200 to Pearson VUE for NCLEX-RN, for a $390 application-side total. LPN examination applicants pay $170 plus $200, totaling $370. Endorsement fees are the same as examination ($190 RN, $170 LPN). Add roughly $36 for fingerprint-based background check processing. Biennial renewal is $140 for RNs and $120 for LPNs, paid online through the DHP licensing portal. Late renewal within one renewal cycle past expiration adds a $50 (RN) or $40 (LPN) penalty. Beyond that window, the license must be reinstated at $225 (RN) or $200 (LPN), or $300 if the lapse followed disciplinary action.

Realistic Timeline

The Virginia Board of Nursing does not publish a fixed processing target, but most endorsement applicants experience a 4-8 week end-to-end timeline once fingerprint results, Nursys verification from the originating state, and any required credential evaluation are in. Examination applicants typically receive Board eligibility in 2-4 weeks after a complete application is submitted, and Pearson VUE registration follows immediately. Plan to submit at least 8-10 weeks before you need to practice; longer if you have any criminal history disclosure, out-of-country training, or a discrepancy in your originating-state record.

Renewal and Continued Competency

Virginia runs on a biennial renewal cycle tied to the licensee's birth month — not the calendar year. Continued competency is flexible: rather than a flat CE-hour requirement, the Board lets each licensee complete any one of nine approved pathways during the renewal cycle. The most common pathways are:

• 30 contact hours of Board-approved continuing education alone.
• 15 contact hours of continuing education PLUS 640 hours of active nursing practice.
• Current national specialty certification from an approved certifying organization.
• 3+ semester credits of post-licensure academic coursework from a regionally accredited college or university.
• Board-approved refresher course.
• Nursing-related evidence-based practice project, research, authoring or co-authoring a publication, or teaching/developing a nursing course or continuing education program.

Continuing education must be offered by a recognized provider — ANCC, NCSBN, AHEC, the Virginia Nurses Association, NLN, or other approved organizations. Dual-licensed RN/LPN nurses meet the requirement once per cycle, not separately for each license. The first renewal after initial licensure is exempt from continued competency. Records should be retained for at least one renewal cycle in case of audit.

Single State Versus NLC

If Virginia is your Primary State of Residence, your Virginia RN or LPN license is issued as a multistate license at no extra fee, authorizing practice in every other NLC state. If your PSOR is a non-compact state (California, New York, Oregon, etc.), the Virginia license is issued as a single-state license — same fee, same fingerprint requirement, but it only authorizes practice in Virginia. PSOR rules are strict: you cannot hold two multistate licenses simultaneously, and a move from one compact state to another deactivates the prior state's multistate privilege.

How White Glove Helps

We manage Virginia RN and LPN applications end-to-end with particular focus on the issues that actually stall files: getting the right profession selected in the DHP portal at the first step, sequencing fingerprint capture through a Virginia State Police-approved vendor early so results land before the rest of the file is complete, initiating Nursys verification from the originating state on day one rather than waiting, and routing CGFNS or Josef Silny evaluations for international graduates well ahead of the substantive review. For nurses establishing Virginia as their Primary State of Residence, we coordinate the PSOR documentation and the deactivation of any prior compact-state multistate license so the Virginia multistate is clean from issuance. We also track your specific birth-month biennial renewal date and pre-stage continued competency documentation against your chosen pathway so renewal is a non-event when it comes due.