Virginia is one of two states that uses an FR-44 as well as an SR-22, and the FR-44 requires double the ordinary liability limits. Everybody writing about Virginia says so. Almost nobody says which section does the doubling, and nobody seems to have noticed that the numbers the DMV itself publishes for both certificates have been out of date since 2021.
That sounds like a technicality until you price a policy against the wrong row. This page sets the statute and the DMV's own publications side by side, quotes both, and shows exactly where they part company. It carries no premium figures: every dollar amount below is a statutory limit or a fee the DMV publishes. If the filing itself is unfamiliar, begin with what an SR-22 actually is.
Which certificate you owe, and the section that says so
Start with the form. Virginia's FR 44, the "Virginia Uniform Financial Responsibility Certificate", carries its own purpose statement at the top of page one:
"Use this form to comply with Virginia Code §46.2-316 C for a motor vehicle liability insurance policy with coverage that is double the minimum limits generally required by Virginia Code §46.2-472."
Two section numbers, doing two different jobs. § 46.2-316(C) is the authority that doubles. § 46.2-472 only supplies the base figure that gets doubled. That distinction matters because pages about Virginia routinely cite § 46.2-472 as the FR-44 rule, and § 46.2-472 says nothing whatever about the FR-44 — it is a section about what an owner's policy must contain.
Here is § 46.2-316(C) in the codified text, which is the sentence the form is pointing at:
"the Department shall not issue or reinstate a driver's license or learner's permit to any person convicted of a violation set forth in subdivision A 4 for a period of three years after he otherwise becomes entitled to a license or permit unless he furnishes proof of financial responsibility in the future as provided in § 46.2-439 under a motor vehicle liability insurance policy that satisfies the requirements of § 46.2-472 except that the limits of coverage exclusive of interest and costs, with respect to each motor vehicle insured under the policy, shall be not less than double the minimum limits set forth in § 46.2-472"
"Subdivision A 4" is the list that decides your form: violations of § 18.2-51.4 (maiming while under the influence), § 18.2-266 (driving under the influence), and § 18.2-272 (driving while the licence has been forfeited for one of those convictions). If your conviction is on that list, the FR-44 is not a preference — the Department is barred from reinstating you without one.
§ 46.2-439 names both certificates by title in the Code, which is unusual and worth quoting when an insurer claims not to recognise the form: proof in the future "shall be an American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators Uniform Financial Responsibility Form (SR-22), or Virginia Uniform Financial Responsibility Form (FR-44), depending on the circumstances." Note the asymmetry the name records: the SR-22 is an interstate AAMVA form, the FR-44 is Virginia's own. That is the structural reason a carrier licensed in twenty states may hesitate at the FR-44, and how the two certificates differ covers the rest.
The DMV's guide DMV 292 (07/01/2026) sorts the other direction and lists what puts you on the plain SR-22 instead: "Unsatisfied judgment", "Operating an uninsured motor vehicle", "Failure to maintain insurance coverage on your vehicle". So the split is not severity in the abstract; it is a closed statutory list on one side and everything else on the other.
§ 46.2-472 sets the base in two dated tiers, and the second one is recent. Subsection A governs policies "effective on or after January 1, 2022, but prior to January 1, 2025" at $30,000/$60,000/$20,000. Subsection B governs policies "effective on or after January 1, 2025" at $50,000 for one person, $100,000 for two or more, and $25,000 for property damage.
Now compare that to what the DMV publishes. The table below is ours; no source sets these rows against each other.
| What it states |
Source (date on the document) |
One person |
Two or more |
Property damage |
| SR-22 base, policies effective 2022-01-01 to 2024-12-31 |
Va. Code § 46.2-472(A) |
$30,000 |
$60,000 |
$20,000 |
| SR-22 base, policies effective on or after 2025-01-01 |
Va. Code § 46.2-472(B) |
$50,000 |
$100,000 |
$25,000 |
| SR-22 limits as printed, citing § 46.2-472 |
DMV 292 (07/01/2026) |
$25,000 |
$50,000 |
$20,000 |
| FR-44 limits as printed, citing § 46.2-316(C) |
DMV 292 (07/01/2026) |
$50,000 |
$100,000 |
$40,000 |
| FR-44 computed as "not less than double" the current base — our arithmetic, not a published figure |
§ 46.2-316(C) applied to § 46.2-472(B) |
$100,000 |
$200,000 |
$50,000 |
Sources: law.lis.virginia.gov and dmv.virginia.gov, both read 2 September 2026. The DMV 292 rows quote the guide verbatim; the last row is our computation and is labelled as such.
The guide's own words for those two rows are: "For SR-22's (§ 46.2-472) — bodily injury/death of one person $25,000 — bodily injury/death of two or more persons $50,000 — property damage $20,000", and "For FR-44's - double the minimum coverage limits (§ 46.2-316 (C)) — bodily injury/death of one person $50,000 — bodily injury/death of two or more persons $100,000 — property damage $40,000."
Two observations that follow from the table, and that neither source makes.
The guide's FR-44 row now reads as Virginia's ordinary minimum. $50,000/$100,000 is exactly the current § 46.2-472(B) base for any policy effective on or after 1 January 2025. A driver who buys to the guide's FR-44 figures is buying what every Virginia motorist must carry anyway — the doubling has collapsed into a numerical coincidence. The property-damage line is the only one where the guide's FR-44 figure ($40,000) still exceeds today's base ($25,000), and that is an accident of the old arithmetic rather than a margin anyone chose.
The form outlives the guide because the form refuses to print a number. FR 44 is dated 01/01/2008 and says only "double the minimum limits generally required by Virginia Code §46.2-472". That deferral is why an eighteen-year-old form is still accurate while a guide revised on 1 July 2026 is not. The general rule to take from this: where a Virginia document defers to a section and another restates it in dollars, the deferral is the safer one to price against.
The DMV's Financial Responsibility Requirements page takes the same deferring approach and stays correct by doing so: "The minimum liability coverage is set forth in Virginia Code § 46.2-472." Ask your insurer to write the certificate against § 46.2-472(B) doubled, and to state the three limits in the quote.
Three years from what? The two anchors do not match
Every Virginia source agrees on three years. They do not agree on where the three years start, and the gap between the answers can be a year of premium.
DMV 292 says the end of the suspension. It lists the periods during which the certificate must be in force and on file, and the last of them is "For three years from the: Suspension/revocation end date — Judgment satisfaction date".
§ 46.2-316(C) says something different. Its window is "for a period of three years after he otherwise becomes entitled to a license or permit" — a phrase that turns on entitlement, which arrives only when every other reinstatement condition is met. VASAP completion, an interlock period, a court order, and other unrelated suspensions all sit inside that phrase, and DMV 292 confirms they can stack: for consecutive DUI-related actions, "Virginia law requires DMV to run the suspension/revocation periods consecutively (one after the other)."
The uninsured-vehicle sections use a third anchor. § 46.2-706(B) provides that "when three years have elapsed from the effective date of the suspension required in this section, the Commissioner may relieve the person of the requirement of furnishing proof of financial responsibility in the future" — from the effective date, that is, from the beginning. § 46.2-707 words it the same way: "when three years have elapsed from the date of the suspension herein required."
So an SR-22 arising from an uninsured vehicle counts from the day the suspension began, while an FR-44 arising from a DUI counts from the day you would otherwise be entitled to a licence. Same three years, opposite ends of the suspension. Do not carry one state's rule across; where each state starts counting shows how much the anchors vary, and how long you need an SR-22 covers what restarts them. Ask the DMV for your own dates in writing, and note which of the two phrasings the answer uses.
Two further mechanics belong here, because they are what actually resets the clock. § 46.2-482 gives your insurer a hard deadline against you: "When any insurance policy certified under this chapter is cancelled or terminated, the insurer shall report the fact to the Commissioner within fifteen days after the cancellation on a form prescribed by the Commissioner." DMV 292 states the consequence: "Upon receipt of the notice, DMV will suspend/revoke your driving privilege until you provide a current SR-22 or if applicable, FR-44." Fifteen days is the whole warning you get, and it runs to the DMV, not to you — the same mechanism an SR-26 filing triggers elsewhere.
Every vehicle you own goes on the certificate
§ 46.2-435 is one sentence long and it disposes of a common assumption:
"Proof of financial responsibility in the amounts required by this chapter shall be furnished for each motor vehicle registered by the person required to furnish such proof."
Each vehicle registered to you — not the one you drive. DMV 292 says the same thing in operational terms and draws the line between the two policy types the FR 44 form offers as checkboxes. An owner's policy "allows the insured to register and operate vehicles listed on the SR-22/FR-44", and then: "All vehicles owned by the customer must be listed on the SR-22/FR-44." An operator's policy is "for persons who are required to have a certificate of insurance, but do not own a vehicle", and the guide is blunt about its limit: "This policy type does not insure vehicles."
The FR 44 form itself enforces the split. Its owner's-policy block asks for vehicle year, make and VIN for each vehicle; its operator's-policy block is defined on the form as "Applicable to any vehicle not registered/titled to the above listed person." So a non-owner SR-22 or non-owner FR-44 is a real option in Virginia and the paperwork anticipates it — but only if nothing is registered in your name. If a car sits in your driveway on your registration, the operator's policy is the wrong box, and a quote written on that basis is not a quote for what Virginia will accept. Anyone working through SR-22 after a DUI should settle which box applies before collecting a single price.
The uninsured-vehicle route, and the fees Virginia publishes
If your filing comes from driving uninsured rather than from a DUI, the numbers are Virginia's, not an insurer's, and they are steep. § 46.2-707 makes owning and operating an uninsured registered vehicle "a Class 3 misdemeanor", extends the same class to a knowing non-owner driver, and adds an obligation most people never hear about until it is breached: an owner of an uninsured registered vehicle "shall immediately surrender the vehicle's license plates to the Department, unless the vehicle's registration has been deactivated," and failing to do so is itself a Class 3 misdemeanour.
The money side sits in § 46.2-706(B) and § 46.2-707, which both require a "noncompliance fee of $600" before the licence, registration certificates and plates come back, plus proof of financial responsibility in the future. The DMV's own Financial Responsibility Requirements page restates it as a sequence: "Pays a $600 non-compliance fee — Furnishes and maintains proof of financial responsibility (form SR-22) for three years — Pays a reinstatement fee, if applicable." Note that the $600 is separate from, and additional to, the reinstatement fee.
Two deadlines in § 46.2-706(B) are worth writing down. The suspension follows "the refusal or neglect of any owner within 30 days to submit the liability insurance information when required" — thirty days from the DMV's request, not from anything you receive later. And the hearing window is unusually generous, so it is worth using: a request for an administrative hearing "must be received by the Department within 180 days of the issuance date of the order of suspension", with the 180 days waived on evidence of military service under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, incarceration, commitment, hospitalisation, or being physically outside the United States when the order issued. Under § 46.2-707, false verification of insurance carries its own separate penalty: no reissue "for a period of 180 days from the date of such order of suspension." Anyone in this position should read driving without insurance alongside this section.
The reinstatement fees themselves are set by § 46.2-411, and the structure is more interesting than a single figure. Subsection C sets a base "reinstatement fee of $30", then provides that it "shall be increased by $30" where the suspension or revocation results from a listed conviction — the list includes involuntary manslaughter under § 18.2-36.1, maiming while intoxicated under § 18.2-51.4, driving while intoxicated under § 18.2-266 or § 46.2-341.24, refusal to submit to testing under § 18.2-268.2, hit and run under § 46.2-894 and reckless driving. Of that additional $30, the section directs that "$5 of the additional amount shall be retained by the Department" and "$25 shall be transferred to the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative Trust Fund". Subsection F adds "an additional fee of $40" paid into the Trauma Center Fund before any licence is restored. Subsection G handles the stacked case: with more than one suspension requiring reinstatement, you pay one fee "attributable to the one of his revocations or suspensions that would trigger the highest reinstatement fee, plus an additional $5 fee for administrative costs" for each additional one.
Read subsection G against the consecutive-periods rule in DMV 292 and the asymmetry is clear, and it is ours rather than either source's: Virginia charges you almost nothing extra for a second suspension — $5 — while making you serve it consecutively. The stacking costs you months, not dollars. Budgeting for the fee schedule and ignoring the calendar gets the exposure backwards.
What I could not verify
Whether the DMV applies its own printed SR-22 and FR-44 figures in practice, or the current § 46.2-472 tier. Both documents are dated and quoted above; I am not going to average them or guess which one an examiner uses. The § 46.2-472(B) tier is the law for any policy effective on or after 1 January 2025, and the FR 44 form's own deferral to § 46.2-472 points the same way, so writing the policy to the doubled current base is the conservative reading. Confirm it with the DMV's Insurance Verification Office, which is the address printed on the FR 44 form, before binding a policy.
When Virginia's uninsured motor vehicle fee option disappeared. The current codified text of §§ 46.2-705, 46.2-706 and 46.2-707 contains no option to pay a fee in lieu of insuring a vehicle — only the $600 noncompliance fee charged after a suspension. The historical citations on those sections record amendments at 2023, c. 538 and 2025, cc. 163 and 177, and I did not read those acts, so this page does not date the change.
The FR-46. The DMV's insurance-filing material pairs the SR-22/FR-44 with an SR-26/FR-46 cancellation counterpart, but the only copy I could reach was served from a DMV test-environment host rather than the production site, so it is not cited here. § 46.2-482's fifteen-day reporting duty is the codified rule and is quoted above.
Your own start date. § 46.2-316(C) counts from when you "otherwise becomes entitled to a license or permit"; DMV 292 counts from the suspension end date; § 46.2-706(B) counts from the effective date of the suspension. Which phrase governs your file is a question for the DMV, and worth asking in writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an SR-22 or an FR-44 in Virginia?
It is decided by a closed statutory list, not by severity in general. § 46.2-316(C) requires the FR-44 for convictions set out in subdivision A 4 of the same section: § 18.2-51.4 (maiming while under the influence), § 18.2-266 (driving under the influence), and § 18.2-272 (driving while the licence has been forfeited for one of those). DMV 292 (07/01/2026) lists the plain SR-22 triggers as an unsatisfied judgment, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, and failure to maintain insurance coverage on your vehicle. § 46.2-439 names both forms in the Code, so an insurer that says it has never heard of the FR-44 can be pointed at the section.
What limits does a Virginia FR-44 have to be written to?
§ 46.2-316(C) requires limits "not less than double the minimum limits set forth in § 46.2-472", and § 46.2-472(B) sets that base, for policies effective on or after 1 January 2025, at $50,000 for one person, $100,000 for two or more, and $25,000 for property damage. The DMV's own guide DMV 292 (07/01/2026) prints different figures — $50,000/$100,000/$40,000 for the FR-44 and $25,000/$50,000/$20,000 for the SR-22, the latter citing § 46.2-472 for numbers that section has not contained since 2021. The comparison table above sets all of them out with their sources; the safe course is to price against the current § 46.2-472(B) tier doubled and confirm with the DMV before binding.
When do my three years start in Virginia?
That depends on which section put you there, and the sources genuinely differ. DMV 292 says three years from the "Suspension/revocation end date" or the "Judgment satisfaction date". § 46.2-316(C), the FR-44 provision, runs three years "after he otherwise becomes entitled to a license or permit" — which waits on VASAP, any interlock period, and any other suspension, and DMV 292 confirms DUI-related periods run consecutively. For an uninsured-vehicle case, § 46.2-706(B) and § 46.2-707 count from the effective date of the suspension instead. Get your own dates from the DMV in writing.
What does an SR-22 cost in Virginia, and which part of it can I check?
No figure appears here, because no insurer publishes a rate for an individual record and an average built from other drivers is not a price for yours. What is knowable is where Virginia's own money goes: a $600 noncompliance fee under § 46.2-706(B) and § 46.2-707 for an uninsured vehicle, a $30 reinstatement fee under § 46.2-411(C) rising by $30 for a DUI-type conviction, a further $40 into the Trauma Center Fund under § 46.2-411(F), and $5 per additional suspension under § 46.2-411(G). On the policy, settle which certificate you owe and which limits apply before collecting quotes, list every vehicle registered in your name as § 46.2-435 requires, and ask each insurer for the premium and the filing charge as two separate numbers.
