Driving on a Revoked License in Virginia: Penalties by Section

Driving on a revoked license in Virginia is charged under one of three sections, and the difference between them is measured in jail time. The general offense, Va. Code § 46.2-301, is a Class 1 misdemeanor. But where the revocation came from repeat DUI convictions, § 46.2-391 D carries a mandatory minimum of 10 days in jail — and a felony of one to five years in the aggravating cases.

Suspended and revoked are not the same thing in Virginia

A suspension withdraws the driving privilege for a stated period, after which it can be reinstated on paying the fee and meeting any conditions. A revocation cancels the license: nothing comes back automatically, and in some cases the person must apply for a new license or petition a court. A forfeiture is the automatic loss that a DUI conviction itself imposes, without any separate DMV or court order.

The word used on the DMV notice or the court order tells you which body of law applies, and therefore what a charge of driving during it looks like.

Type	Typical source	What ends it
Suspension	Demerit points, a court-ordered suspension, a compliance failure	The stated period plus reinstatement
Revocation	§ 46.2-389 (one year for listed offenses), § 46.2-391 A (three years, second DUI), § 46.2-391 B (indefinite)	Application for a new license; sometimes a court petition
Forfeiture	§ 18.2-271 — one year on a first DUI conviction, three years on a second within 10	The period, plus the DUI conditions

Our overview of why a Virginia license gets suspended covers the suspension side; this page is about the revoked and forfeited cases. The most common administrative suspension of all is the demerit-point one, and its thresholds are in how many points suspend a license in Virginia.

Which section a driving-on-revoked-license charge falls under

Situation at the time of driving	Section charged	Exposure
License revoked or suspended generally, no DUI history behind it	§ 46.2-301 B	Class 1 misdemeanor; up to 12 months and $2,500 (§ 18.2-11)
License forfeited by a DUI conviction under § 18.2-271, administratively suspended after a DUI arrest, revoked under § 46.2-389 or § 46.2-391, or the terms of a DUI restricted license broken	§ 18.2-272	Class 1 misdemeanor; Class 6 felony on a third conviction within 10 years
License revoked under § 46.2-391 A or B (repeat or felony DUI), where the revocation rests on at least one offense committed after 1 July 1999	§ 46.2-391 D	Class 1 misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum 10 days in jail; felony in the aggravating cases

The last row overrides the second: § 18.2-272 applies “except as otherwise provided in § 46.2-391,” and subsection H of § 46.2-391 sends cases back to § 18.2-272 where subsection D does not reach them. Which of the three appears on the summons is the first thing to check.

§ 46.2-391 D: the 10-day minimum, and when it becomes a felony

Subsection D applies to anyone convicted of driving while his license is revoked under subsection A or B of § 46.2-391, or in violation of the terms of a restricted license issued under subsection C, provided the revocation rested on at least one conviction for an offense committed after 1 July 1999.

• If the driving did not itself endanger anyone, it is a Class 1 misdemeanor “punishable by a mandatory minimum term of confinement in jail of 10 days.” Under § 18.2-12.1 a mandatory minimum cannot be suspended in whole or in part. The one exception in the subsection is driving “necessitated in situations of apparent extreme emergency that require such operation to save life or limb,” where the sentence may be suspended.
• If the driving did endanger the life, limb or property of another, or took place while the driver was violating the DUI statutes and had a prior such conviction, it is a felony: one to five years in a state correctional facility, of which one year is a mandatory minimum — or, in the court’s or jury’s discretion, 12 months in jail as a mandatory minimum, with no part suspended and no concurrent running with any other sentence.
• A second or subsequent offense is punished as a felony on the same footing, “irrespective of whether the offense, of itself, endangers the life, limb, or property of another.”

Two further provisions in the section matter in practice. Subsection F: a revocation period “shall not begin to expire until the person convicted has surrendered his license to the court or to the Department of Motor Vehicles” — so a driver who kept the card in his wallet may have served none of it. Subsection G preserves one narrow exception for farm tractors moved between agricultural tracts no more than five miles apart.

§ 18.2-272: driving after forfeiture of license

Section 18.2-272 is the offense for the DUI side of the ledger. It reaches driving during the period a person was deprived of the right to do so by a DUI forfeiture, an administrative suspension after a DUI arrest, a revocation under § 46.2-389 or § 46.2-391, a test-refusal suspension, or in violation of the terms of a DUI restricted license. It is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and “any person convicted of three violations of this section committed within a 10-year period is guilty of a Class 6 felony.”

Subsection B adds a rule that catches drivers who believe they are within their restricted permit. Regardless of compliance with every other restriction, it is a violation of the section for a person whose privilege has been restricted, suspended or revoked because of a DUI-related offense to drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.02 percent or more. A preliminary breath test is available, and the implied-consent provisions apply.

How long a Virginia revocation lasts

Revocation	Length
§ 46.2-389 — manslaughter by vehicle, DUI, driving after forfeiture, a felony involving a motor vehicle, failure to stop at an injury accident, and the other listed offenses	One year, except that manslaughter and maiming-while-intoxicated convictions are revoked as § 46.2-391 B provides
§ 46.2-391 A — second DUI within 10 years, or two convictions of driving after forfeiture within 10 years	Three years
§ 46.2-391 B — felony DUI, involuntary manslaughter, maiming while intoxicated, or three DUI offenses from separate incidents within 10 years	Indefinite: revoked “and not thereafter reissue[d]”
§ 18.2-271 — first DUI conviction	One year from the date of judgment, in addition to any administrative suspension

The indefinite case is not the end of the road, and the route out of it — a petition to the circuit court of the person’s residence — is set out in can a license revocation be permanent in Virginia.

Getting the privilege back after a revocation

Reinstatement after a revocation has an extra step that a points suspension does not. Under § 46.2-411 B, before granting or restoring a license to anyone whose privilege was revoked or suspended under the revocation sections that subsection lists — § 46.2-389 and § 46.2-391 among them — the Commissioner “shall require proof of financial responsibility in the future,” and no one may be licensed who is barred from licensure by the sections in between.

The statutory reinstatement fee in subsection C is $30, doubled where the revocation came from DUI, a refusal, driving on a suspended license, reckless driving, eluding, hit and run, involuntary manslaughter or maiming while intoxicated, so a reinstatement fee of $60 is the figure in most revocation cases. Subsection F adds a further $40 to the Trauma Center Fund. The sequence, and what has to be cleared before the DMV will take the money, is in our guide to reinstatement after a Virginia suspension or revocation.

What to do if you are charged

1. Read the section number on the summons. § 46.2-301, § 18.2-272 and § 46.2-391 carry very different exposure, and only one of them has a mandatory minimum.
2. Check whether the license was ever surrendered. Under § 46.2-391 F the revocation has not started running until it was.
3. Do not drive again in the meantime. A second charge under § 46.2-391 D is a felony on its own terms.
4. Get a lawyer if the summons cites § 46.2-391 or § 18.2-272. Because the charge is not prepayable — § 16.1-69.40:1 keeps driving while suspended or revoked off the prepayable list — there will be a court date, and where a mandatory minimum or a felony is in play the consultation is worth more than anything a website can tell you.

The general offense, including the dismissal the court may grant on proof of compliance, is set out in what happens when a suspended driver is charged under § 46.2-301.