                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

MANNER OF ISSUING ORIGINAL DRIVER&#8217;S LICENSES TO MINORS (§ 46.2-336)

A. Except as provided in subsection B, the Department shall forward all original
driver&#8217;s licenses issued to persons under the age of 18 years to the judge
of the juvenile and domestic relations court in the city or county in which the
licensee resides. The judge or a substitute judge shall issue to each person to
be licensed the license so forwarded, and shall, at the time of issuance,
conduct a formal, appropriate ceremony, in which he shall illustrate to the
licensee the responsibility attendant on the privilege of driving a motor
vehicle. The attorney for the Commonwealth who serves the jurisdiction in which
the ceremony is to be conducted may request in writing in advance of such
ceremony an opportunity to participate in the ceremony. Any judge who presides
over such ceremony shall, upon request, afford the attorney for the Commonwealth
the opportunity to participate in such ceremony and to address the prospective
licensees and the persons enumerated below who may be accompanying the
prospective licensees as to matters of enforcement, prosecutions, applicable
punishments, and the responsibility of drivers generally. If the licensee is
under the age of 18 years at the time his ceremony is held, he shall be
accompanied at the ceremony by a parent, his guardian, spouse, or other person
in loco parentis. However, the judge, for good cause shown, may mail or
otherwise deliver the driver&#8217;s license to any person who is a student at
any educational institution outside of the Commonwealth at the time such license
is received by the judge as prescribed in this section.

B. The chief juvenile and domestic relations district court judge may waive the
ceremonial requirements of subsection A for each juvenile and domestic relations
district court within the district or order that each juvenile and domestic
relations district court within the district conduct such ceremony in an
alternative manner. In courts where the ceremony has been waived, the Department
shall mail or otherwise deliver the driver&#8217;s licenses directly to
licensees.

C. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the issuance of Virginia
driver&#8217;s licenses to persons who hold valid driver&#8217;s licenses issued
by other states.

HISTORY: 1962, c. 261, § 46.1-375.1; 1964, c. 185; 1984, c. 780; 1989, c. 727;
1993, c. 53; 1998, c. 472; 2012, cc. 30, 100; 2014, c. 352; 2022, cc. 55, 636.