Virginia contractor license: Class A, B and C

Virginia does not license by trade first. It licenses by money first. Every contractor license the Board for Contractors issues is a class (A, B or C), which sets how much work you may take on, plus one or more classifications or specialties, which set what kind of work it is. The class comes straight from the definitions in Code of Virginia § 54.1-1100, and each one is measured two ways.

Both tests count. Take a deck builder whose biggest job is $28,000 but who books $310,000 of work in a year. The single-contract test says Class C, but the twelve-month total puts the firm in Class B, so Class B is the license it needs. Plan the class around the year you are growing into, not the job in front of you: moving up later is a change-of-class application, and the firm has to meet the higher class’s entry requirements on the day it files.

North Carolina caps a license by single-project size and asks for working capital at each tier; Virginia adds the annual-volume test on top. Our North Carolina sheet shows the other model, and the requirements-by-state guide puts both beside the rest of the country.

A Virginia license is issued to a firm, and the firm has to name people who carry the knowledge for it. The regulations at 18VAC50-22-40 to -60 split that job in two.

• Designated employee (Class A and B only)

  At least 18, a full-time employee or a member of responsible management, and has passed the board-approved business examination. Class C firms do not name one.

• Qualified individual (every class, every classification)

  At least 18, full-time or responsible management, with one year of experience in the classification for Class C, three for Class B and five for Class A. They pass the trade exam or hold the prerequisite license the regulation names.

DPOR’s exam vendor is PSI. The business exam is taken by the designated employee and the specialty exam by the qualified individual, and the board says the exam must be passed before you apply. The board lists the PSI fees as $40 for one portion, $72 for two, $85 for three and $85 for a qualified-individual specialty exam. Our exam guide covers how the business and trade halves differ, and the practice questions are a fair warm-up for the business portion.

Class A and B firms must prove financial standing; Class C firms do not. The test is net worth or equity, excluding property held as tenants by the entirety, shown on the board’s financial statement, a CPA-reviewed statement or a CPA audit. A firm that would rather not open its books can post a $50,000 surety bond on the board’s form instead.

The bond is the same $50,000 for both classes, so it stands in for $45,000 of net worth at Class A but only $15,000 at Class B. What it costs you each year depends on your credit, and the bond premium calculator gives you a premium band for that amount before you call a surety.

The class sets the money; the classification sets the work. The regulation at 18VAC50-22-20 defines seven classifications, and for four of them the qualified individual needs a separate license or certification before the board will accept them.

18VAC50-22-61 ties electrical, plumbing and HVAC firms to a master tradesman license at every class, and the statute names the same condition. Residential building (RBC) and commercial building (CBC) are the general contractor classifications, split by the building, not the job size: RBC covers dwellings and townhouses as the Uniform Statewide Building Code defines them, CBC covers commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental buildings, and neither one allows electrical, plumbing, HVAC or gas fitting work.

Below the classifications sit the specialty services in 18VAC50-22-30, 49 of them on our count, from home improvement (HIC) and roofing (ROC) to radon mitigation (RMC) and elevator/escalator work (EEC). A firm that does one kind of work can license just that specialty. Adding a classification or specialty to an existing license later costs $125. For how these layers compare with other states, read license classifications, explained and general contractor vs specialty license.

Board fees are set in regulation and are non-refundable. Exam fees are separate and paid to PSI.

Each initial application also carries a $25 Recovery Fund assessment and each renewal $30. Changing the designated employee or the qualified individual costs $125 each. The board’s page adds that from 1 July 2026 certain fees carry a separate technology fee of $7.25 a year; ask the board whether yours does before you pay.

A license expires two years from the last day of the month it was issued. The renewal and fee must reach DPOR within 30 days of that date, and the license is not valid during those 30 days. After that the file moves to reinstatement. If the renewal notice never arrives, DPOR’s own FAQ says to send the fee with your license number, no earlier than 60 days before expiry. The renewal tracker works the dates out for you.

DPOR runs one License Lookup for every profession it regulates. Search by name, license number, address or license type. There is an advanced search and a separate disciplinary action search, and on a contractor’s record the thing to confirm is that the class covers the job’s value and the classifications cover the work. Our license-check guide covers what a clean record does not tell you, and the lookup directory has the equivalent page for every other state.