West Virginia licenses the security company, not the individual guard. If you work for a guard firm, the Secretary of State doesn't issue you a card; your employer holds the license and answers for you. You still have to meet the state's disqualification rules, and you need a license of your own only if you sell security services under your own name.
Who the law covers
The licensing law (W. Va. Code ch. 30, art. 18) covers the security guard business: furnishing guards, watchmen, bodyguards, patrols, guard dogs or armored car services for hire (§ 30-18-1(8)). No one may run that business without a Secretary of State license (§ 30-18-8).
- Contract guards work under their company's firm license.
- In-house guards, employed by one employer to protect only that employer's affairs, are outside the law entirely (§ 30-18-1(7)(B)).
- Work that requires law enforcement certification isn't security guard business (§ 30-18-1(8)(B)).
Working for a licensed firm
- Who can be hired: you must be 18 or older, a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and have no felony conviction anywhere. Convictions for illegally carrying a pistol or other dangerous weapon, burglar's tools, receiving stolen property, unlawful entry, helping an inmate escape, or drug possession or distribution also disqualify you unless pardoned. So do a revoked or denied security or investigator license in any state, habitual drunkenness or drug addiction, and a court finding of incompetence (§§ 30-18-5, 30-18-7). The one-year experience rule doesn't apply to employees.
- What the firm collects: a recent full-face photo and a complete set of fingerprints, kept at its West Virginia office and released to the Secretary of State on request, plus your authorization for the state to review your conviction records (§ 30-18-7).
- What the firm reports: every new security employee, by letter or on the standard form. At each renewal the firm lists everyone working in the state, with name, address, birth date and Social Security number, and certifies that it has their prints and photos on file.
- Training: the firm must supervise you and provide the education or training reasonably needed to follow the law (§ 30-18-7(a)). The state sets no training hours, no exam and no firearms course.
- No shortcuts: a firm may not put you on a post if you don't meet these rules, and no licensee may subcontract guard work to an unlicensed company (§ 30-18-8). Any violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of $100 to $5,000 or up to a year in jail. For unlicensed guard work, the fine counts each day and, for a firm, each unlicensed person (§ 30-18-11).
Working on your own: the individual license
Apply for an individual security guard license only if you'll provide security services on your own and under your own name.
- Experience: 1 year of verified full-time work for a licensed security or investigative firm (at least 32 hours a week for 50 weeks), 30 semester hours in investigative or law enforcement studies, a mix of the two, or related military training.
- Paperwork: a sworn application listing 7 years of addresses, a passport-size color photo taken within the last year, fingerprints for a state and FBI check, five character references from people who have known you 5 years and aren't related to you, and a $5,000 surety bond or proof of liability insurance.
- Cost: $150 for West Virginia residents and $550 for non-residents, including a $50 processing fee that isn't refunded; the rest comes back if you're denied. You also pay the actual cost of fingerprinting (§ 30-18-10(d)).
- Term: 2 years. Renewal is $50 with a current bond or insurance and a new photo (§ 30-18-9). If you let the first license lapse, you start over as a new applicant.
- If you're denied: you have 15 days from the written notice to request a hearing. When the denial rests on a disqualifying conviction, the only question at the hearing is whether you're the person convicted (§ 30-18-10).
Carrying a gun
West Virginia has no separate armed guard license. Anyone 18 or older who is a U.S. citizen or legal resident and isn't barred from having a firearm may carry concealed without a license (§ 61-7-7(c)).
- The optional license comes from your county sheriff: $50 for residents and $100 for non-residents, 21 or older, with a handling and firing qualification (§ 61-7-4).
- Property owners can ban guns on their property, and refusing to hand over the weapon or leave when asked is a misdemeanor. Guns are barred at primary and secondary schools except for law enforcement or with the county superintendent's written permission (§ 61-7-14).
- Employers can't require a carry license, or require you not to have one, as a condition of employment, and can't bar you from keeping a legal firearm locked and out of view in your own vehicle in the parking lot (§ 61-7-14(d)). Your employer still decides whether you carry on duty.
Pay
West Virginia's minimum wage is $8.75 an hour (§ 21-5C-2). The state's 5,200 security guards earned a median of $13.85 an hour in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Starting a security company
A firm license needs a qualifying agent who meets the individual license rules and directly supervises the firm's guard operations. Every officer, member or partner files an application with a photo and five references, and the firm files its list of employees who will work in West Virginia, a $5,000 bond or liability insurance, and its business registration. The statute sets the firm license fee at $200 plus the $50 processing charge (§ 30-18-6(g)).
How tessura helps
An individual West Virginia license lasts 2 years, and if the first one lapses you reapply from scratch. tessura is free for guards: keep your license, training certificates and carry license in the credential wallet and get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each deadline.
tessura is not affiliated with the West Virginia Secretary of State, the West Virginia State Police or any state agency. Rules change, so confirm anything you rely on with the Secretary of State's Licensing Division.