We contacted the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to find out if your out of state, California, driving record would follow you and be placed on your new VA driver's license when you become a resident there.

The representative we spoke to said that an out of state driving record would not be placed on your new Virginia driver's license so you would start anew basically. This is of course as long as you do not have outstanding tickets or other issues that are still pending in California she said.

If your CA DUI issues are not totally cleared up than you will need to have them taken care of before applying for a Virginia driver's license according to the VA DMV representative we spoke to. Also the VA driver's manual notes that if your license has been suspended or revoked by another state, a Virginia license may not be issued until your driving record in that state is cleared and you meet Virginia requirements. So if your CA license is currently under suspension you will have to wait until it is reinstated in California before applying and being issued a Virginia driver's license.

When you apply for a license in Virginia the VA DMV will search the national driver registry (NDR) to make sure that your California license does not have any pending tickets or other issues with it, such as an active suspension, etc, before allowing you to obtain a driver's license in this Commonwealth.

When you move to Virginia you will need to obtain VA insurance on your vehicle. The minimum liability coverage is 25/50/20. This stands for Bodily Injury/death of one person $25,000, Bodily Injury/death of two or more persons $50,000 and Property Damage $20,000.

Keep in mind though your California driving record will not follow you and be placed on your Virginia driving record that your VA insurance provider can still request and see your CA driving record and thus see the DUIs and rate you on them. Since your VA driving record will be so new any insurer will also pull up your CA motor vehicle record (MVR) to see what it has on it.

For more information on VA insurance, go to our Virginia car insurance state page. And you can click here to get instant car insurance quotes for Virginia.