A. The Department, on receiving an application for a certificate of title for a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer, shall issue to the owner a certificate of title and a registration card as separate documents.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 46.2-603

  • Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
  • Semitrailer: means every vehicle of the trailer type so designed and used in conjunction with a motor vehicle that some part of its own weight and that of its own load rests on or is carried by another vehicle. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • Trailer: means every vehicle without motive power designed for carrying property or passengers wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, including manufactured homes. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
  • Vehicle: means every device in, on or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except personal delivery devices and devices moved by human power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. See Virginia Code 46.2-100

B. Subject to all applicable federal laws, the Department may refrain from issuing a certificate of title in paper form and, instead, shall create only the electronic record of such title to be retained by the Department in its existing electronic title record system with a notation that no certificate of title has been printed on paper. The owner of a vehicle will be deemed to have obtained and the Department will be deemed to have issued a certificate of title when such title record has been created electronically as provided in this subsection. An owner or lienholder listed on a title record so created may at any time request and the Department shall provide a paper certificate of title for the vehicle. Except as provided in § 46.2-603.1, all transfers of vehicle ownership shall require a paper certificate of title in accordance with, and subject to, all applicable federal laws.

C. The Department may issue an electronic registration card to an individual who holds a valid physical registration card that the Department is authorized to issue. If the Department issues an electronic registration card, the registration card shall be issued in addition to, and not instead of, the underlying physical registration card for which a person is eligible. No electronic registration card shall be issued unless the applicant holds the corresponding physical registration card. The possession or display of an electronic registration card shall not relieve a person from the requirements of any state law or regulation or local ordinance or regulation requiring the possession or display of the physical credential. Any provision of state law or regulation or local ordinance or regulation that may be satisfied by the display or possession of a physical registration card may be satisfied by displaying or possessing an electronic registration card issued pursuant to this section at the discretion of the person to whom it is presented and subject to the conditions of this section.

Code 1950, § 46-68; 1958, c. 541, § 46.1-68; 1989, c. 727; 2005, c. 305; 2012, c. 650; 2022, c. 183.

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