West Virginia Optometry Licensing: ISE, LSPE and Five Years

West Virginia changed its entry requirements in 2025, and the change is easy to miss if you rely on older guides. The West Virginia Board of Optometry's application page puts it at the top: legislation passed in the 2025 session "requires that all new applicants be laser certified as of July 9, 2025," and "You must be Injection Certified and Laser Certified before you can begin a West Virginia Optometry license application." For an optometrist licensed elsewhere, reciprocity also requires five of the last seven years of practice and oral, injection and laser certification. After the file is complete, the board interviews you.

The details below come from the board's application, laser certification, licensing and renewal pages.

Which certifications must be in place before you start?

Two certifications, each with two possible pathways:

• Injection: NBEO's Injections Skill Exam (ISE), or proof of completing a board-approved injection certification course.
• Laser: NBEO's Laser and Surgical Procedures Examination (LSPE), or proof of completing a board-approved laser and advanced procedures certification course.

For new graduates after May 1, 2025, the board's laser page says applicants must pass the LSPE, as defined in W. Va. Code section 30-8B-5, or complete a post-graduate approved course for ophthalmic laser utilization certification. The board lists two approved laser courses: Northeastern State University Oklahoma College of Optometry and the University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Optometry, and posts upcoming course dates; it asks you to get pre-approval for any course not on its list, because unapproved courses are "not guaranteed to be approved after the course has been taken." The board also asks every applicant to contact the office before starting.

NBEO lists the ISE at $350 and each LSPE section at $1,270 for exams from August 2026. ISE and LSPE: states that ask for the injection and laser exams explains both.

After licensure, how does full laser certification work?

West Virginia's laser certification has a clinical component. The board requires a set number of proctored procedures on a living human eye, each supervised by a board-approved laser-certified proctor:

• Posterior capsulotomy (YAG): five procedures.
• Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT): five procedures.
• Peripheral iridotomy (LPI): four procedures.

You become fully laser certified in each procedure once its proctored cases are documented on the board's forms and approved, and your status shows on the board's public registry. Proctored sessions can take place in another laser-certified state, but the proctor still needs board approval, and proctors observing procedures inside West Virginia must hold an active West Virginia license. The board's licensing page says licenses issued from number 3100 on, beginning July 9, 2025, carry DPA/TPA and oral prescriptive authority plus injection and laser certification, with no letters after the number. How states decide on laser procedures places West Virginia in context.

Who qualifies for reciprocity?

The board's application page says: "An Optometrist who is licensed in another state and has practiced five out of the last seven years may be eligible to apply for a License by Reciprocity," under W. Va. State Rule 14-8, and "As of July 2025, all Reciprocity License applicants must be oral, injection and laser certified to apply." An optometrist short of five of the last seven years applies through the standard route, which still requires the injection and laser certifications. How states count years of practice compares West Virginia's window.

Does West Virginia's universal licensing law help?

Effective July 1, 2025, Senate Bill 458, the Universal Professional and Occupational Licensing Act of 2025 (W. Va. Code section 30-1-27), lets a person licensed in another state at the same practice level be licensed in West Virginia if other conditions are met. For optometry, the board lists them, and the first is the one most out-of-state ODs cannot meet: you must establish residence in West Virginia, or be married to an active-duty service member who has moved to a West Virginia installation on official orders. Beyond that: a current license at the same practice level (oral, injection and laser certification), good standing everywhere, minimum education, all required NBEO exams, no revoked or surrendered license under investigation, a criminal background check, the fees and a minimum 75 percent on the West Virginia OSLE. Proof of residency is a West Virginia driver's license plus two documents showing your name and physical address. A remote OD living elsewhere will not use this path.

What does the rest of the application require?

For all applicants, the board asks for:

• Certified transcripts from every undergraduate, graduate and optometry school.
• NBEO Parts I, II, III and TMOD.
• The ISE or injection course, and the LSPE or laser course.
• A background check, with separate instructions for in-state and out-of-state applicants.
• License verifications from every jurisdiction where you ever held or applied for an optometry license.
• The West Virginia Online State Law Exam (OSLE), which is untimed and open book. NBEO's OSLE page lists it at 20 multiple-choice questions.

Once all parts are in, the board schedules an interview. Interviews are traditionally held at the quarterly board meetings in February, May, August and November, in person, or by video conference if the board approves extenuating circumstances. States that require a state exam or a board interview compares West Virginia with Arkansas and others.

How much does a West Virginia license cost?

From the board's application page, as of October 2026:

• Initial application fee: $300.
• Background check: $47.25 if performed in West Virginia; $47.25 plus a $39.95 out-of-state processing fee if performed elsewhere.
• West Virginia OSLE: the board lists $35, paid to NBEO. NBEO's own fee schedule for exams from August 2026 lists $45 for its remote state law exam, so check the current figure when you register.
• After approval: a $600 initial license fee and a $100 official certificate fee.

The board also lists a separate telehealth certification process after you hold a West Virginia license.

How does West Virginia renewal work?

Every license expires June 30 each year, and renewal costs $500. In odd-numbered years you renew and pay; in even-numbered years you also report your CE, which the board audits before approving renewal. The board asks for everything by June 15 and charges a $300 late fee after June 30. The 2026 legislative session updated the CE rules for the period ending June 30, 2026 and after:

• 40 hours per even-numbered two-year cycle.
• At least 12 hours in ocular pharmacology or therapeutics.
• At most 10 hours by correspondence or internet; the rest live.
• 2 hours in administering pharmaceutical agents by injection and 2 separate hours in laser or advanced procedures, for every licensee.
• Current Basic Life Support certification.
• 2 hours of drug diversion CE within one year of initial licensure.

The board pays the yearly OE TRACKER fee for active licensees and audits CE through it. OE TRACKER and how boards audit CE explains the system.

Where does a licensing service fit in a West Virginia move?

West Virginia is an Exam or Interview State License Application, which is $799. We check your ISE, LSPE and oral certification status first, so you know whether you can begin, confirm your five-of-seven-years history, request transcripts, NBEO scores and verifications from every jurisdiction where you held or applied for a license, and prepare the application with a question-by-question guide timed to a quarterly interview date. Our Laser and Advanced Procedure Credential ($399 per state) organizes the laser course approval and proctored-procedure documentation. You complete and sign the application, take the OSLE, attend the interview and perform every proctored procedure yourself. See the West Virginia licensing page to compare states.