How to Fill Out and Submit Virginia Form MED 10: Disabled Parking Placard

Virginia Form MED 10 is the one-page application you submit to the Virginia DMV to get a disabled parking placard or disabled parking license plates. You fill in the applicant section, your medical provider completes and signs the certification section, and you send the form by mail or hand it in at any DMV office. Placards are free, and there is no online filing option because the form requires your provider’s original signature.

Who a Provider Can Certify

Before the form is useful, your condition has to fit one of the qualifying categories in the Virginia Code. A medical provider makes the call, but the categories are specific: you cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to rest; you need a brace, cane, crutch, wheelchair, prosthetic, or another person’s help to walk; you use portable oxygen; your lung function falls below defined spirometry or arterial oxygen thresholds; your heart disease is Class III or IV under American Heart Association standards; you have a severe orthopedic, neurological, or arthritic limitation; you have a cognitive or developmental disability that impairs judgment, including autism; you have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another dementia; or you are legally blind or deaf. A catch-all category also lets a licensed physician certify any other physical, developmental, or mental limitation that impairs walking or makes walking unsafe.¹

Who can sign depends on the condition. Physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners can certify any qualifying category. Podiatrists and chiropractors are limited to walking-related conditions: the 200-foot limit, the assistive-device category, orthopedic conditions, and the general walking-impairment catch-all. Cognitive conditions, cardiac disease, lung disease, blindness, and deafness all require a physician, PA, or NP.²

Filling Out the Applicant Section

Download the form from the Virginia DMV website or pick one up at a DMV Customer Service Center. On your half, enter your full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and current Virginia address.³

Then check what you are requesting: a permanent placard, a temporary placard, or disabled parking license plates. Plates require your vehicle’s title number and VIN; a placard on its own does not. Also mark whether this is an original application, a renewal, or a replacement. For replacements, note the reason — lost, stolen, damaged, or an address change. The same form covers every version, so be careful with the checkboxes.

The Medical Certification Section

You cannot certify yourself. A qualifying provider fills in the condition, signs, and dates the form.³ If you are applying for a temporary placard, the provider must also write the start and end dates of the disability, and the end date cannot be more than 12 months out.⁴

Two situations let you skip the certification. If you already hold a permanent placard and are now applying for disabled license plates, or you already have disabled plates and want to add a permanent placard, the DMV already has your medical verification on file.²

Where to Send the Form

Mail the completed MED 10 to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, P.O. Box 85815, Richmond, VA 23285-5815, or drop it off at any DMV Customer Service Center or DMV Select office. There is no online submission; the DMV needs your provider’s wet signature.²

Temporary placards, permanent placards, and replacement placards are all free. There is no application fee.³ Disabled license plates still carry the standard vehicle registration fees, except for veterans with a qualifying disability, who are exempt from the annual registration fee on one personally owned vehicle.²

What Happens After You Submit

Once the DMV processes your paperwork, the placard is produced by an outside vendor and mailed directly to you. Plan on about 15 days from the processing date for it to arrive.

Renewing or Replacing a Placard

A permanent placard is good for five years. To renew, submit a new MED 10 with the Renewal box checked. You do not need a fresh medical certification for a permanent-placard renewal, and the renewal is free.³

Temporary placards work differently. They expire on the end date your provider wrote on the form, up to 12 months. If you still need one past that date, your provider has to re-evaluate you and sign a new MED 10. There is no renewal shortcut for temporary placards.⁴

If your placard is lost, stolen, or damaged, submit a new MED 10 with the replacement section completed. No fee, and no medical recertification is required.³

If You Are Applying on Behalf of an Organization

MED 10 is for individuals. Nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and transportation organizations that regularly carry people with disabilities use a different form, MED 11, which certifies that the vehicle is registered to the organization and used for that purpose.²

Penalties for Misusing the Placard

A placard issued through MED 10 belongs to the person it was issued to. Using someone else’s placard when you are not transporting that person is a Class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.⁵ Counterfeiting a placard or disabled plate is a separate Class 2 misdemeanor.⁶ Both are criminal convictions, not parking tickets.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1240 – Definitions
2
Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Apply for a Disabled Parking Placard or License Plate
3
Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Disabled Parking Placard or License Plates Application
4
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1241 – Issuance of Disabled Parking Placards
5
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1250 – Unauthorized Use of Disabled Parking License Plates or Placards; Penalty
6
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 46.2-1247 – Counterfeiting Disabled Parking License Plates or Placards; Penalty