The Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry exists under Chapter 9 of Title 9.1 of the Code of Virginia, whose stated purpose is to help police and others protect communities from repeat offenders and to keep people with these convictions from working directly with children, and the Virginia State Police keeps it. The registry website makes two things plain before any search: the State Police has not assessed any individual's risk of re-offense before listing the person and has decided nothing about whether anyone listed is dangerous, since the point of the database is access to public information rather than a warning about a particular person; and using registry information for any purpose the chapter does not allow, or to intimidate or harass anyone, is a Class 1 misdemeanor, while simply republishing or reasonably distributing what the public database shows is not harassment on its own.
Section 9.1-913 of the act fixes what the internet system shows: the name and every alias, the date and locality of the conviction with a brief description of the offense, the age, current address and photograph, the current work address, the name of any college where the person is enrolled, and whatever else the State Police finds necessary for public safety, including that a person is wanted for failing to register; the system is updated each business day with new registrations and verifications, and anything the State Police knows to be wrong comes down. Someone who believes a convicted person is missing from the registry sends the name, date of birth and court to sor.vsp@vsp.virginia.gov, and the State Police investigates whether the person meets the registration criteria; the sentencing court holds the fuller file, since adult court records are public unless sealed. Every sheriff and police department that takes registrations is on the Virginia county pages.
- Search: the State Police registry site, updated every business day, showing names, aliases, offense, conviction date and locality, age, address, photograph, work address and college.
- Verification: Tier I and Tier II every year in the birth month, Tier III and murder four times a year at three month intervals, with last names A through L reporting from the 1st to the 15th and M through Z from the 16th to the end of the month.
- Duration: until a court order ends it, which a single Tier I offense may seek after 15 years and a single Tier II after 25; Tier III, murder and the former section 18.2-67.2:1 offense register for life.
- Alerts: email when a registrant moves within a chosen number of miles of an address, or into one or more ZIP Codes and their neighbors, through the site's alert registration page.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Virginia's own systems: the Virginia State Police Sex Offender Registry home page, the registry's frequently asked questions, the registry's email alert registration page, the registry's registration forms page, the SP-236 registration form and its instructions, revised July 1, 2025, the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry Act in the Code of Virginia, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Registering: three days, prints, DNA and the identifiers
Under section 9.1-903 a person convicted of an offense that requires registration, including a juvenile tried and convicted in circuit court, registers in person within three days of release from a state, local or juvenile facility or from civil commitment, or within three days of a suspended sentence or a juvenile disposition when no confinement is imposed; a new resident registers within three days of taking a residence in Virginia.
The registrant is photographed, fingerprinted and palm printed, gives a blood, saliva or tissue sample for the DNA data bank unless one is already stored, and supplies every email address and instant message, chat or other internet name used or intended, the place of employment and the registration of every motor vehicle, watercraft and aircraft owned, with a government photo identification showing the full name, gender, date of birth and physical address as proof of residence; a person with no legal residence designates a location that can be found with reasonable specificity.
The SP-236 form the police use, revised July 1, 2025, requires a color photograph of the face and shoulders against a neutral wall at every new registration and every two years after, two palm print cards on the FBI form, and a signed disclosure statement, all mailed the same day to the State Police at P.O. Box 27472, Richmond, VA 23261-7472, so that the internet listing and the address verifications stay current.
Every change is reported in person to the local police or sheriff: a new name within three days; a new residence within three days of moving, to the agency where the new residence lies; a move out of Virginia within ten days before it, to the agency where the person last registered; a new place of employment within three days; a change in owned vehicles, watercraft or aircraft within three days; and a change of email address or internet identifier within 30 minutes, in person or electronically.
A registrant enrolled or employed at a college names it on every form and reports any change in that status within three days, and the State Police tells the campus police. The act also makes anyone required to register tell the security staff of an emergency shelter, on entering it during a declared emergency, that the person is a registered sex offender, without being turned away for that reason alone.
The verification months, by tier and by last name
Section 9.1-904 sets the rhythm. A person convicted of a Tier I or Tier II offense verifies the registration information with the State Police once a year in an interval that includes the birth month; a person convicted of a Tier III offense or murder verifies four times a year at three month intervals, one of them the birth month. A later conviction under section 18.2-472.1 for failing to register doubles the pace, to twice a year for Tier I and II and to every month for Tier III and murder.
Registrants whose last name begins with A through L verify between the 1st and the 15th of each verification month and those with M through Z between the 16th and the last day, and the State Police posts the forms, the schedules for Tier I and II and for Tier III and murder, and may allow verification by other electronic means under its regulations. Separately from the registrant's own verification, the State Police physically verifies the registration within 30 days of the initial registration, twice a year after it and within 30 days of any change of address for registrants not under correctional supervision, while the Department of Corrections or the community supervision office does the same for those under its control, and a false registration is investigated and charged where the person last registered.
Nonresidents, workers and visitors
A person who must register in another state, or who would have to if a Virginia resident, registers in person within three days of entering Virginia for an extended visit of 30 days or more, for employment that runs more than 14 days or more than 30 days in a calendar year, paid, volunteered or for government or educational benefit, or as a full time or part time student, showing a home state identification and proof of the job or enrollment.
The registry site's questions page adds that an out of state offender whose own charge does not appear in Virginia's list still registers when the conviction is substantially similar to a Virginia offense that requires it, and that the laws on where a registrant may live, work or go near schools and day cares are sections 18.2-370.2 through 18.2-370.5 of the Code. Juveniles over 13 at the time of the offense who are adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court have registered since July 1, 2005 when the trial court orders it, and juveniles tried and convicted in circuit court register as adults do.
How long, and the petition to come off
Under section 9.1-908 the duty continues until a court order ends it, except that a person convicted of a Tier III offense, murder or the former section 18.2-67.2:1 offense reregisters and verifies for life; any confinement in a prison, jail, hospital or other institution stops the clock, and a confined or civilly committed person owes no verification until release but reports a name change within three days. Section 9.1-910 lets a person registered for a single Tier I offense petition the circuit court of conviction or of residence no earlier than 15 years after the later of the initial registration and the last conviction for failing to register or for any felony, and a person with a single Tier II offense after 25 years, once every court ordered treatment, counseling and restitution is complete; the court reads the whole criminal and registration history, hears the Commonwealth as a party and grants the petition only if satisfied the person no longer poses a risk, and a denied petitioner waits 24 months to try again, while a person with a Tier III offense, two or more registrable offenses, the former 18.2-67.2:1 offense or murder may never petition.
A Tier III or murder registrant may ask the court after three years to drop the quarterly verification to a yearly one on clear and convincing evidence, after an assessment by three certified treatment providers, and a guardian may seek relief for a registrant physically incapable of reoffending or reporting.
Who may get the closed information, and the notices
Section 9.1-912 lets anyone request registry information about a specific person on an official form stating the reason, the requester's name and address and the subject's name, address and Social Security number if known, with a fee the superintendent may set up to $15, and lets criminal justice agencies pull it through the Virginia Criminal Information Network for criminal justice, employee and volunteer screening and the protection of the public and of children; the email addresses and internet identifiers of every registrant may be sent to a communications or computing business for screening its users, on its promise to report any match and to pass the data no further.
Under section 9.1-914 every school, day care, child minding service, licensed child day center or home based child care, assisted living facility, children's residential facility, foster home, nursing home, common interest community association and college may ask for electronic or written notice, and any person may ask for electronic notice, of any registration, reregistration or verification by a registrant whose address falls in the same or a contiguous ZIP Code, which the State Police sends within three business days; the Council for Private Education files the location of every accredited private school each year for that purpose, and the State Police may charge a fee for the service.
Email alerts on the registry site
The alert registration page takes an address, never a post office box, with its county or independent city, state and ZIP Code and a radius in miles, or a list of ZIP Codes with the option of including the contiguous ones, plus an email address entered twice and a consent to receive mail from the State Police registry; a confirmation arrives within 24 hours, sometimes in the junk folder, and the Manage and Unsubscribe pages change or end every alert tied to an address.
The registry answers by email at sor.vsp@vsp.virginia.gov, and the site's related links lead to the national registry that covers every state, the District of Columbia, the territories and Indian country.
Reading a Virginia result
A listing shows a conviction and an address verified on the tier's calendar, not a judgment about danger, because Virginia assesses no risk before listing; the tier that fixes the verification pace and the chance of removal is read from the offense, and the registry mailbox or the sentencing court settles what the public database leaves out.
Questions about the Virginia sex offender registry
Related Virginia records
Virginia's other public records have guides on this site: Virginia arrest records for what a booking makes public, Virginia inmate search for the Department of Corrections locator and the regional jails, Virginia court records for the circuit and district court case search, and the Virginia county pages for every sheriff and police department.