Virginia Land Surveyor CE (PDH) Requirements (2026): 16 Hours Every 2 Years

Requirements Overview

Virginia's Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects (the APELSCIDLA Board), part of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, requires land surveyors to complete 16 hours of Board-approved continuing education each two-year (biennial) cycle. The same 16-hour figure applies to professional engineers under Code of Virginia § 54.1-404.2.

The hours must be earned during the two-year license period immediately before your expiration date, and they count only toward that renewal — Virginia has no carry-over, so banking extra hours for the next cycle does not work. The Board also blocks double-dipping: you cannot get credit for a CE activity with the same content more than once in the two years before expiration.

Virginia does not mandate a set number of ethics or law hours. Acceptable subjects include technical topics and business practices such as project management, risk management, ethics, and public health, safety, and welfare. For crediting, 50 contact minutes equal one hour of CE.

How You Can Complete Your CE

Virginia CE Rules & Limits

Details specific to Virginia that generic CE guides tend to miss:

• Land surveyors must complete 16 hours of Board-approved CE during the two-year license period immediately before the expiration date; the hours count only for that one renewal and do not roll into the next (Code of Virginia § 54.1-404.2; 18VAC10-20-683).
• Fifty contact minutes equal one hour of CE.
• A licensee will not receive credit for completing a CE activity with the same content more than once during the two years before license expiration.
• Acceptable CE covers technical subjects and business practices such as project management, risk management, ethics, and public health, safety, and welfare; Virginia does not mandate a fixed number of ethics or law hours.
• Keep records of the CE used to renew for three years from the license expiration date. Exemptions and waivers are addressed in 18VAC10-20-687.

Tips for Virginia PLSs

• Earn all 16 hours inside the two-year period ending at your license expiration date. Hours from outside that window, or extra hours beyond 16, will not carry into the next renewal.
• Avoid repeating the same course content within a cycle — Virginia will not give credit for the same content taken more than once in the two years before expiration.
• Remember the math: 50 contact minutes count as one CE hour, so track sessions by their actual minutes.
• Virginia mandates no fixed ethics or law hours, but ethics and public health, safety, and welfare are explicitly acceptable subjects — a sensible part of your mix.
• Keep your CE completion records for three years after the license expiration date, and check 18VAC10-20-687 with the Board if you think an exemption or waiver may apply.

Sources

PLS Requirements in Nearby States

Other Professions in Virginia

All Land Surveyor CE Requirements by State

Open any other state's Land Surveyor CE (PDH) requirements, or see the full Land Surveyor CE hub to compare every state in one table.