tessura

← Every state

WV

Checking a guard or a security company in West Virginia

This page is for whoever is doing the checking — a client, a property manager, a company vetting a subcontractor. It tells you what a guard and a guard company are supposed to hold in West Virginia, and walks you to West Virginia Secretary of State, Licensing Division’s own records to confirm it.

tessura is not a West Virginia agency and issues nothing. Every link below goes to the regulator, and the regulator’s answer is the one that counts.

Getting licensed yourself instead? The West Virginia requirements, training hours, and application steps →

Check the guard

West Virginia registers guards through their employer rather than issuing a card to the guard, which changes what you can check.

Ask for the number

A short "Licensee ID" of three to five digits, e.g. 556 or 35065. This is an internal database key, not a number printed on anything the guard carries — search by surname instead.

Live WV SOS Licensing Search results for Type = Security Guard, Last Name = SMITH, whose ID column returned 556, 35065, 70567 and 73466. Nothing in the WV application packet indicates this value appears on a guard’s credential.

How to check it

  1. Ask the guard for their full legal name and the name of the company that employs them. Do not bother asking for a licence number — West Virginia’s ID is an internal key the guard will not recognise.
  2. Open apps.sos.wv.gov/business/licensing/, set the Type dropdown to "Security Guard", and type the surname into Last Name. Leave the field labelled "If you are human, leave this field blank" empty.
  3. Click Search and read the Results table: Name, Address, License Type, Status and ID.
  4. Use the Address column as an employer check — it is populated with the employing security firm’s name and address, so you can confirm the guard works for the firm that sent them.
  5. Confirm Status reads Active. "Pending", "Expired", "Denied", "Resigned" and "Terminated" all mean not currently licensed.
  6. The table shows no expiration date at all, so if you need the expiry in writing, email investigationsupport@wvsos.gov quoting the ID from the results.
Open the WV Secretary of State Licensing Search →

Shows licence status · does not show an expiry date.

If the lookup finds nothing: West Virginia Secretary of State, Licensing Division, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. East, Building 1, Suite 157-K, Charleston WV 25305.

Check the company

West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division licenses the firm itself here. This is the check most people skip, and it is usually the more important of the two.

What the firm must holdSecurity Guard Firm LicenseIssued by West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence. West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division does not publish licence numbers here, so the name is what you can actually match.
  2. Open the West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division lookup and search for that name.
  3. Search the legal name, not the name on the uniform or the invoice. Brand names, DBAs, and the name on the truck are often not the licensed entity.
  4. Read the status and the expiry date, not just the presence of a record. An expired or suspended licence still returns a result.
  5. If nothing comes up, ask which entity holds the licence and in which state, then check that name. If the answer does not resolve, treat the licence as unconfirmed and call West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division before signing.
Open the West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division lookup →

West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division names the firms it licenses but publishes no licence number, so a number a company gives you cannot be matched against the state list. Match on the legal name instead.

Ask for insurance properly

A licence says the state let them operate. Insurance is what stands between you and a claim, and it is the easier of the two to fake — a certificate is only true on the day it was printed.

West Virginia requires it by law

No amount is published anywhere. The statute requires "a surety bond or sufficient proof of liability insurance as required by the Secretary of State" and fixes no figure, and neither the application packet nor the renewal page supplies one. Anyone quoting a West Virginia insurance minimum is guessing.

Filed with the Secretary of State and re-filed at each renewal, but that is the extent of it: no insurer or surety cancellation duty, no day count, no certificate-holder designation, and no published minimum to measure a shortfall against. The two-year renewal cycle is the longest verification interval of any state — a policy cancelled in month two would not be examined again for nearly two years.

If it lapses: Not specified in statute or on the Secretary of State’s pages. A lapse would surface at the two-year renewal, if then.

W. Va. Code §30-18-6(h) — https://code.wvlegislature.gov/pdf/30-18-6/

We found conflicting sources on this state and have not resolved them — treat the above as a starting point and confirm with the regulator.

A certificate of insurance (COI) that names your business as an additional insured, not just the certificate holderCertificate holder means you were mailed a copy. Additional insured means their policy actually answers for you if you are pulled into a claim.
General liability, and workers’ compensation at your state’s statutory limitsIf a guard is hurt on your property and the company carries no workers’ comp, the claim tends to land on you. Ask for commercial auto too if they run patrol vehicles.
The policy number and the effective and expiry dates, on a certificate dated within the last monthAn undated or months-old certificate is the single most common tell. The dates let you ask the insurer about the right policy.
The name, agency, and direct phone number of the broker who issued it — then call themThe broker can confirm the policy is in force today. The certificate PDF cannot, and a forged or stale one looks identical to a real one.
A contract term requiring written notice to you before the policy is cancelled or non-renewedStandard certificates promise notice to the insured, not to you. Putting the duty on the company in the contract is what makes a mid-term cancellation a breach.
A fresh certificate part-way through the term, not only at signingRe-asking at 60 or 90 days costs you an email and defeats the whole get-the-COI-then-drop-it pattern.

tessura does not verify anyone’s insurance and has no access to insurers’ records. This is guidance for doing it yourself, not a statement about any company on this site. It is also not legal advice — for a contract of any size, have your own counsel or broker set the limits.

Where this comes from

West Virginia requirements last reviewed August 28, 2026. Some details on this state are still pending a second check against the primary source. Rules change — the regulator’s page is authoritative if it disagrees with ours.

Hiring guards in West Virginia?

Send one staffing request and it reaches licensed companies covering your state. No account needed.

Request security staffing