Virginia Professional Engineer Renewal
Virginia Professional Engineers must complete 16 hours of qualifying continuing education during each two-year license period before renewal.
Virginia revised 18VAC10-20-683 effective May 1, 2026. The current rule expressly addresses self-directed assessments, activity documentation, random audits, and a 21-calendar-day audit response. Licensees should use the current rule instead of older summaries.
Core Requirements
| Requirement | Virginia rule |
|---|---|
| Total hours | Complete 16 CE hours during the two-year license period immediately preceding the license expiration date. |
| Qualifying content | The activity must maintain, improve, or expand skills and knowledge relevant to the licensee's area of professional engineering practice. |
| Ethics and HSW | Ethics and public health, safety, and welfare may qualify when demonstrably relevant to the engineer's practice, but the current rule does not establish a separate mandatory ethics or HSW-hour minimum. |
| Carryover | CE is valid only for the renewal for which it was earned. Additional hours are not valid for a subsequent renewal. |
| Repeated content | The same content may not be claimed more than once during the two years preceding expiration. |
| Renewal attestation | Licensees attest that the 16-hour requirement has been completed when renewing or reinstating. |
Course Standards
Activities and Credit
| Activity | Virginia credit rule |
|---|---|
| Contact instruction | Fifty contact minutes equals one CE hour. Shorter segments within an activity may be totaled when computing credit. |
| Self-directed education | The sponsor must provide a concluding assessment verifying that the licensee successfully achieved the activity's purpose and objective. |
| College coursework | One semester credit equals 15 CE hours; one quarter credit equals 10 CE hours. |
| Teaching or developing | Initial development, substantial updating, or initial teaching may earn twice the participant credit. The same offering cannot earn additional teaching credit later. |
| Partial completion | Claim only credit supported by the sponsor's predetermined requirements and successful-completion documentation. |
An Online-PDH course that is relevant to the engineer's practice, states its objectives and credit in advance, includes a final assessment, tracks successful completion, and issues a detailed certificate aligns with Virginia's standards for self-directed CE. Final acceptance remains with the Board.
Records and Audit
Keep completion records for three years from the license expiration date associated with the renewal. The Board may conduct random audits of licensees who have applied for renewal.
If selected, the licensee must provide documentation for every CE activity used for that renewal within 21 calendar days from the date of the Board's audit notice.
Special Circumstances
The 16 CE hours must be completed during the two years immediately before the Board receives the reinstatement application and are valid only for that reinstatement.
The Board may exempt, waive, or reduce continuing-education requirements in cases of certified illness or undue hardship. A licensee should obtain Board approval rather than assume an exemption.
The current CE regulation applies to any renewal or reinstatement and does not state a blanket first-renewal exemption for Professional Engineers.
Use the expiration date shown in the DPOR license record to define the applicable two-year completion period and renewal deadline.
Official Sources