Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: a dissolved Virginia corporation reinstates by filing Application for Reinstatement (filed via the Clerk’s Information System, CIS, or via a paper Reinstatement Requirements Packet requested from the Clerk’s Office) under Va. Code § 13.1-754 (Virginia Stock Corporation Act, Reinstatement of a corporation that has ceased to exist) for $100, but only within 5 years of dissolution.
If you’d rather have the reinstatement filed for you
Bizee can prepare and file the Virginia reinstatement paperwork described above on your behalf. State filing fees and any back taxes owed are separate, and you pay those directly either way.
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The filing, and what Virginia calls it
A corporation that has ceased to exist (including by automatic termination for failure to pay its annual registration fee/file its annual report) may apply to the State Corporation Commission for reinstatement. The application, which may be a signed letter from an officer or director, must include the corporation’s SCC ID number. The Commission enters an order reinstating corporate existence upon receipt of an annual report together with payment of the reinstatement fee plus all registration fees and penalties that came due before and after the corporation ceased to exist.
How long you have to reinstate
Virginia does not let a dissolved corporation reinstate forever. You have just 5 years from the dissolution or revocation date; miss it and the only path back is forming a new entity from scratch, losing the original formation date and history. A corporation must apply for reinstatement within five years after it ceased to exist; after that window, reinstatement under this section is unavailable (except where corporate existence was terminated by Commission order for continued abuse of authority, or the terminating court decree provides no reinstatement path). (Va. Code § 13.1-754)
What you must pay before it goes through
Virginia will not reinstate the corporation until every year it sat delinquent is paid for. The Commission requires payment of a $100 reinstatement fee plus all annual registration fees and penalties that were due before the corporation ceased to exist and that would have become due afterward had it not ceased to exist. (Va. Code § 13.1-754)
Whether your name is still yours
Your original name is not guaranteed to still be yours. If the corporation’s name no longer satisfies Virginia’s name-availability requirements at the time of reinstatement, the corporation must file articles of amendment changing its name to a compliant name before reinstatement is completed. Check Virginia’s business-name database before assuming the reinstatement filing will go through under the old name. (Va. Code § 13.1-754 (referencing § 13.1-630))
What the filing costs
Virginia’s Application for Reinstatement (filed via the Clerk’s Information System, CIS, or via a paper Reinstatement Requirements Packet requested from the Clerk’s Office) carries a $100 filing fee. $100 reinstatement fee plus all back annual registration fees and penalties, billed as part of the Reinstatement Requirements Packet.
What this page does not answer
Reinstating the entity at the state level and squaring things up with the IRS are two separate processes. Late federal returns, penalty abatement requests, and reinstating a lapsed EIN’s associated accounts are governed by federal law, not by Virginia’s corporation statute, and this page does not source them. We have the state-filing answer at primary and the federal-cleanup answer not at all.
This page covers a for-profit business corporation. If you are reinstating an LLC in Virginia instead, the filing, fee and statute are different: see reinstating an LLC in Virginia.
Sources
Every citation on this page is statutory or the Secretary of State’s own official filing instructions. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster as a source of law; those are the only publishers of the competing versions.
- Va. Code 13.1-754, official Code of Virginia (Virginia Law Library / LIS): https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title13.1/chapter9/section13.1-754/
- Virginia SCC: official Reinstatements FAQ page: https://www.scc.virginia.gov/businesses/business-faqs/reinstatements/