Virginia electrician license: levels, hours, reciprocity, pay

A Virginia journeyman electrician license takes a mix of field years and classroom hours, most often 4 years of practical experience plus 240 hours of vocational training, then a PSI exam. A master needs a year holding a journeyman license. The median Virginia electrician made $30.24 an hour in May 2025, per BLS, and the DC metro, which takes in Northern Virginia, paid $36.50.

Everything below is as of 2026, from the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), Board for Contractors, Tradesmen program. Rules change, so confirm with the board before you apply. For how Virginia compares with other states, see our guide to electrician license requirements by state.

01Virginia license facts at a glance

DPOR's page puts it plainly: state certification of tradesmen "is mandatory, not optional."

02How many years and hours for a Virginia journeyman?

The more classroom time you have, the fewer field years you need. These are the options in 18VAC50-30-39, the tradesman rule in effect since April 1, 2025:

The training has to come from a board-approved provider. Got 6 years in the field and 80 hours of school? You qualify now. Got 4 years and only 160 hours? Finish 80 more classroom hours or work another year, whichever comes first.

Virginia added residential tradesman licenses in April 2025, but only for HVAC and plumbing. There's no residential-only electrician license, so the journeyman card is the entry license for the trade.

03Taking the exam

You apply to the board first. Once it approves you, you schedule with PSI. DPOR lists the journeyman exam at $100 and the master at $125, paid to PSI. Exam sites are in Charlottesville, Richmond, Roanoke, Vienna and Virginia Beach, plus Johnson City, Tennessee and Salisbury, Maryland.

Per Mike Holt Enterprises' state page, the journeyman exam is 70 items and the master 90, both on the 2020 NEC, which Virginia's building code adopted effective January 18, 2024. That's secondary, so check the PSI candidate bulletin for the current code edition before you study.

04Moving to master

Under the same rule, a master needs at least one year holding a valid journeyman license in the trade, or 9 years of practical experience. Then the master exam. If you plan to run work under your own company, Virginia licenses the business separately as a Class A, B or C contractor with an electrical specialty, sized by contract value.

05Which states have agreements with Virginia?

DPOR's list of reciprocal licensing and examination agreements covers these electrical deals:

Exam reciprocity means you skip Virginia's trade exam, not the application. DPOR says everyone applying this way submits a full application with a license verification from the out-of-state board, and has to meet every term of that state's agreement. Call the board at the number on the agreement list for the terms that apply to you.

Those four neighbors are why Virginia works as a Mid-Atlantic hub. A Virginia journeyman can take the card into DC, West Virginia or Kentucky without sitting another trade exam, and hands from those states can come the other way. Our Maryland electrician license guide, DC electrician license guide and West Virginia electrician license guide cover the other side of each line. The full picture is in our electrician license reciprocity guide.

06CE and renewal

Virginia tradesman licenses run 2 years. To renew, take one board-approved 3-hour course on the current NEC before the license expires. If you hold both journeyman and master, one course covers both.

There's a 30-day grace period after expiration, then a reinstatement fee, and DPOR says you can't work on an expired license. A $7.25-a-year technology fee applies to certain fees from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030. DPOR's License Lookup now shows the CE hours you owe.

07What does a Virginia electrician make?

The median Virginia electrician made $30.24 an hour in May 2025, with the top 10% at $50.83 or more. These are BLS OEWS straight-time wages for all electricians, apprentices included. They leave out overtime, per diem and benefits, and they're market data, not what any one contractor will pay you.

Virginia had 23,630 electricians on payroll and a $62,900 median annual wage. The DC metro, which takes in Northern Virginia, had 16,580 and a median $6.26 an hour above the state's. That metro also crosses into Maryland, DC and West Virginia, so it's not a Virginia-only number.

A lot of the work in Northern Virginia is data centers, and that work runs long weeks and travel crews. If you're coming in on the road, the GSA FY2027 rate for Loudoun County is $121 a night for lodging and $80 a day for meals, $201 a day all in, against the $181 standard rate. Our guides on data center electrician pay and what data center electrical work is like cover how those checks are built. For what moves a rate inside the ranges above, see our journeyman electrician pay guide.

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