13 permits · verified 2026-09-05
What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Virginia Beach?
In short
A restaurant in Virginia Beach, VA has 8 permits that apply to every business of this type, plus 5 more that depend on your premises, signage or how you are set up. City of Virginia Beach Planning & Community Development, Permits and Inspections charges $75 flat for the certificate of occupancy. 6 of the 13 are charged as a range or formula rather than a flat fee. Verified 2026-09-05 against the issuing agencies’ published fee schedules.
Permits particular to a restaurant in Virginia Beach
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certified Food Manager Requirement | Virginia Beach Health District, Office of Environmental Health | No fee | per the accredited course/exam provider's certificate validity | 2026-09-05 |
| Food Establishment Permit | Virginia Beach Health District, Office of Environmental Health | $40.00 plan review fee plus $40.00 permit fee for a new establishment ($80 total to open); $40.00 annual renewal fee, due 30 days before expiration. | annual | 2026-09-05 |
| Food Establishment Permit | Virginia Department of Health, Division of Food and Environmental Services | $40 a year; a new establishment also pays $40 for plan review | annual — no more than twelve months from issue | 2026-09-03 |
| Certified Food Protection Manageronly if it applies to you | Virginia Department of Health, Division of Food and Environmental Services | No fee | no state-set period — the certifying programme sets its own | 2026-09-03 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
Local permits that apply to every type of business in Virginia Beach
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL) | City of Virginia Beach, Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue | Varies — formula on the Virginia Beach page | annual | 2026-09-05 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Virginia Beach Planning & Community Development, Permits and Inspections | $75 flat | issued once per qualifying occupancy | 2026-09-05 |
| Commercial Building/Alteration Permit | City of Virginia Beach Planning & Community Development, Permits and Inspections | Varies — formula on the Virginia Beach page | one-time, per project | 2026-09-05 |
| Fire Inspection Fee | Virginia Beach Fire Prevention Bureau | $50 per inspection | recurring | 2026-09-05 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
VA registrations that apply to every type of business
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Articles of Organization (LLC)only if it applies to you | Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the Clerk | $100 one-time filing | no expiry, but a $50 annual registration fee is due every year | 2026-09-03 |
| Articles of Incorporationonly if it applies to you | Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the Clerk | Varies — formula on the VA page | no expiry, but an annual registration fee and a free annual report are due | 2026-09-03 |
| Annual Registration Feeonly if it applies to you | Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the Clerk | Varies — formula on the VA page | annual — the last day of the twelfth month after the month of formation | 2026-09-03 |
| Dealer's Certificate of Registration | Virginia Department of Taxation | No fee | indefinite — valid until the business closes or the certificate is revoked | 2026-09-03 |
| General Business License — Local BPOL License (Virginia)only if it applies to you | Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the Clerk | Varies — formula on the VA page | annual — usually due 1 March | 2026-09-03 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
How much does it actually cost to permit a restaurant in Virginia Beach?
There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 13 records listed for a restaurant in Virginia Beach, VA, 8 apply to every business of this type and 5 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.
Of the 8 that always apply, 3 carry a flat fee, coming to $165.00. That is a floor, not a total. 6 of the 13 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 3 have no fee published at all. The ones particular to this business that vary:
Food Establishment Permit: $40.00 plan review fee plus $40.00 permit fee for a new establishment ($80 total to open); $40.00 annual renewal fee, due 30 days before expiration.
The other 5 variable fees belong to permits that apply to every type of business here; their formulas are set out on the Virginia Beach permits page and the VA state page.
Which offices issue these permits in Virginia Beach?
Permits for a restaurant in Virginia Beach, VA come from 7 separate offices: Virginia Beach Health District, Office of Environmental Health, City of Virginia Beach, Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue, City of Virginia Beach Planning & Community Development, Permits and Inspections, Virginia Beach Fire Prevention Bureau, Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the Clerk, Virginia Department of Health, Division of Food and Environmental Services, Virginia Department of Taxation. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.
- Virginia Beach Health District, Office of Environmental HealthIssues 2 permits on this page: Certified Food Manager Requirement, Food Establishment Permit4452 Corporation Lane, 2nd Floor, Virginia Beach, VA 23462 · (757) 518-2700www.vdh.virginia.gov
- City of Virginia Beach, Office of the Commissioner of the RevenueIssues 1 permit on this page: Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL)2401 Courthouse Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23456-9002 · (757) 385-4515cor.virginiabeach.gov
- City of Virginia Beach Planning & Community Development, Permits and InspectionsIssues 2 permits on this page: Certificate of Occupancy, Commercial Building/Alteration Permitplanning.virginiabeach.gov/permits
- Virginia Beach Fire Prevention BureauIssues 1 permit on this page: Fire Inspection Fee(757) 385-4228fire.virginiabeach.gov/fire-prevention
- Virginia State Corporation Commission, Office of the ClerkIssues 4 permits on this page: Articles of Organization (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Annual Registration Fee, General Business License — Local BPOL License (Virginia)1300 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219 · (804) 371-9733www.scc.virginia.gov
- Virginia Department of Health, Division of Food and Environmental ServicesIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Establishment Permit, Certified Food Protection Manager109 Governor Street, Richmond, VA 23219 · (804) 864-7454www.vdh.virginia.gov/environmental-health/food-safety-in-virginia
- Virginia Department of TaxationIssues 1 permit on this page: Dealer's Certificate of RegistrationPO Box 1115, Richmond, VA 23218-1115 · (804) 367-8037www.tax.virginia.gov/register-business-virginia
What does a restaurant need in Virginia Beach that other businesses do not?
Certified Food Manager Requirement
Local ordinance requires a Certified Food Manager present at least 8 hours a day the establishment is open. There is no city-set fee — cost is whatever the ANSI-CFP-accredited course/exam provider (ServSafe, StateFoodSafety.com, 360training.com, National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, Prometric) charges. The City's own Code of Ordinances table of contents confirms Chapter 13, 'Food and Food Establishments,' as the governing chapter; the specific section number within that chapter is not cited here.
Food Establishment Permit
Issued by VDH's local Virginia Beach Health District, not a city health department — Virginia Beach has no separate municipal health agency. The District's Food Plan Review Application Packet asks applicants to allow 30 days for plan review approval and states that food establishment permits must be renewed annually, with the permit fee submitted 30 days before the existing permit expires.
Food Establishment Permit
One flat $40 for the whole state, which is unusual and cheap — and the fee's authority is the Appropriation Act rather than the food statute, so anyone looking for it in Title 35.1 or in the food regulation will not find it there. A new restaurant pays $80 in total, plan review plus permit, and the combined fees are capped at $80 a year per facility. Apply at least thirty days before opening. A permit is not transferable, so a change of ownership means a fresh $40. Ten localities adopted their own food ordinances before 2022 and permit independently — Alexandria, Arlington, Danville, Fairfax County, Hampton, Hopewell, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth and Roanoke — and some add real money on top: Fairfax charges $100 for a preliminary inspection and $80 for a change of ownership. Retail food stores and manufacturers are a different regime entirely, run by the agriculture department, where the permit is free and the annual inspection is $40.
Certified Food Protection Manager
No state fee — Virginia neither issues the certificate nor charges for it; an accredited programme does both. At least one employee with supervisory and management authority must hold it, but the rule carves out establishments serving only food that needs no temperature control, and those that merely reheat or cold-hold commercially processed food, provided they do not cool it. The five-year validity people quote is the certifying programme's rule, not Virginia's — the regulation sets no term. Virginia requires no food handler card statewide either, and the department publishes a table of the twelve localities that do impose one, all of them in Hampton Roads and the Peninsula.
The other 4 local permits in the tables apply to every type of business in Virginia Beach, VA; what each one involves is set out on the Virginia Beach permits page. The 5 state-level registrations apply to every type of business across VA and are covered on the VA state page.
How does a restaurant compare with other businesses in Virginia Beach?
A restaurant and a coffee shop in Virginia Beach, VA need exactly the same 4 permits beyond the ones every business needs.
| Business | Its own permits | Shared with a restaurant | Only a restaurant needs | Only it needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee shops | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Food trucks | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Auto repair shops | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Childcare centres | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Contractors and trades | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Fitness studios | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Retail stores | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Salons and barbers | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Veterinary clinics | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
Sources
Every figure for the permits explained on this page was read from one of these government pages on the date shown. Sources for the permits that apply to every type of business are listed on the Virginia Beach permits page and the VA state page. Confirmed by Editorial Team.
- Virginia Beach Health District — Food Plan Review Application PacketVirginia Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-05
- Code of Ordinances table of contents, confirming Chapter 13, 'Food and Food Establishments,' as the governing chapterCity of Virginia Beach, via Municode · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Virginia Department of Health — food establishment permit application, stating the $40 annual permit feeVirginia Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Virginia Department of Health — food establishment permit application processVirginia Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- 12VAC5-421-55 — certified food protection manager requirement and its exemptionsVirginia Department of Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Related
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.