licenses & feesstate

Expedited Licensure for Military Spouses — and a Temporary Licence if the Board Runs Late

Regulatory boards must expedite a military spouse’s licence application, and where a board cannot complete its review within 20 days it must issue a temporary licence of up to 12 months so you can work while it finishes.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: Expedited review, and a temporary licence of up to 12 months if the board takes more than 20 days

This is a speed and continuity benefit rather than a money one — the statute carries no fee waiver.

Who is entitled to it

You are the spouse of a servicemember or of a recently separated veteran.
You are a surviving spouse — ask the board how the section is applied to you.
Your home is in Virginia.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Establish the two facts the statute turns on: your spouse is on active federal duty (or is a veteran who left service within the last year), and you hold a similar licence from another jurisdiction whose requirements are substantially equivalent.
2File the military spouse expedited application. Eligibility for expediting reaches spouses of members assigned to a duty station in Virginia, a contiguous state, or the District of Columbia.
3Ask the board to waive the experience requirement if your documentation supports it — the statute lets a board do that, and it will not do it unprompted.
4If the board has not finished within 20 days of a complete application, ask for the temporary licence: the statute says it "shall issue" one, valid for up to 12 months while the review continues.
5Separately, honorably discharged veterans may apply substantially equivalent military training, education or experience toward Virginia licence requirements — that is a different route from the spouse one and is worth asking about in the same call.

Form: Military Spouse Expedited License Application
File with: The Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, or the Department of Health Professions for a health profession
Documents you will need: dd214
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

CorrectionThe statute contains no fee waiver. The "up to $1,000" military spouses are told about is a reimbursement paid by the service branch — Coast Guard, Air Force and Space Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps — toward licence transfer costs on a permanent change of station. It is claimed from the military, after paying, and it is not something a Virginia board administers.

Worth knowingThe expedited duty is owed regardless of whether the board has a reciprocity agreement with your old jurisdiction, and it applies even where the board would otherwise want a reciprocal arrangement in place.

Worth knowingRetirees are inside the window for the first year after leaving the service, so a spouse can still use this route shortly after a discharge rather than only during a posting.

Known gapThe statute names both the professional regulation department and the health professions department as implementers. We read the professional regulation side; the health professions department runs its own process for clinical licences.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.