RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia drivers will see new vehicle safety inspection stickers in 2026, including a major change to rejection stickers, as the Virginia State Police continue efforts to improve security and reduce counterfeiting.
Vehicles that pass inspection in 2026 will receive a blue safety inspection sticker, following a series of design changes introduced last year. The 2025 sticker marked the first time green was used, part of a broader overhaul aimed at making inspection stickers more difficult to duplicate.
The most significant update for 2026 involves rejection stickers, which will now be white instead of pink. State police said the new rejection stickers are designed to adhere much more securely to windshields and must be physically scraped off once a vehicle passes inspection. Previous rejection stickers often lost adhesion and fell off after the rejection grace period expired.
Additional changes affect motorcycles and trailers. Beginning in 2026, a single orange sticker will be used for both motorcycles and trailers, replacing the two separate stickers issued in prior years. The new sticker will clearly display the year of expiration, a change intended to improve clarity for motorists and law enforcement.
The updates build on a redesign implemented in 2025, when inspection stickers were reduced in size and enhanced with new anti-counterfeiting features. Those features include a holographic Virginia state seal, a dogwood flower image, and two QR codes. The larger QR code directs users to the Virginia State Police Safety Division webpage, while a smaller code is used for administrative tracking.
Under the current design, the expiration month appears on a white background, while the expiration year is printed over the dogwood image, a combination intended to improve visibility while maintaining security.
State police also announced future color rotations for inspection stickers. Stickers expiring in 2027 will remain blue, followed by red for 2028 and yellow for 2029, continuing a rotating color system to help quickly identify valid inspection periods.
The changes take effect as inspection stations begin issuing 2026 stickers with the start of the new calendar year.
Information from a release
Edited by Dan McDermott
