Many people do not realize how important bail bonds services are in the United States. A significant part of the legal system depends on the work of quality and professional surety bail bondsmen. In fact, in the United States alone, the industry for bail bond services is worth more than $2 billion every single year!
In total, there are almost 25,000 people employed in this industry, and that number continues to go up. But how can you become one of the next surety bail bondsmen in Virginia?
Read on to learn all about the most important steps to follow to successfully become a surety bail bondsman!
Meet the Requirements to Work With Surety Bonds
Working as a surety bail bondsman is an important job. Not just anybody has the qualifications to do it.
In Virginia, there are several requirements before you can even start receiving training to be a bail bondsman.
First of all, you have to be a legal adult, which means you must be 18 years of age or older. On top of that, you have to either be a US citizen or a legal resident.
In Virginia, it is also a requirement that you have a high school diploma. If you do not have one, you can potentially use a GED instead. Both options are sufficient to allow you to take bail bondsman training.
It is not a necessity that you have a college degree to become a surety bail bondsman. However, it is certainly helpful.
The market has a lot of demand for a qualified bail bondsman. But if you really want to stand out from other potential candidates for a specific job, a college degree can help you do so.
Provided that you meet all of the discussed conditions, you will be able to sign up for training. Assuming that your training goes well, you will then be prepared to take the exam.
At that point, you can apply for your license. Once you receive it, you will be ready to work as a surety bail bondsman
But let’s look at some of those steps a little more carefully.
Receive Bail Agent Training for Working in Virginia
The training course to become a bail bondsman takes a total of 240 hours. It is important that you receive this training from a provider who has been officially approved. Otherwise, the training will not count.
As part of your training, you will learn everything you need to know about how to act as a professional and ethical bail bondsman.
Among other things, you’ll have to understand a little bit about law in general and bail bonds law in particular. You will also need to understand how to conduct yourself ethically.
Beyond that, you will learn about how to recover fugitives. This involves both techniques to help you successfully apprehend fugitives and an understanding of the ways you can apprehend fugitives that are legal in Virginia.
There are a few different types of bail bondsmen. There are property bail bondsmen, agent bail bondsmen, and surety bail bondsmen.
However, you can also receive a firearms endorsement for any one of these three options. If you want to receive firearms endorsement, then you will need to receive training in the use of firearms as well.
Just as with the rest of your bail bondsman training, it is essential that you receive this training from an approved provider. Otherwise, you will not be able to take the licensing exam.
Pass the Bail Bond Licensing Exam
Just because you finish training, that does not mean that you are prepared to act as a surety bail bondsman. You must first prove to the satisfaction of the state that you understood your training.
To do this, you will receive a bail bondsman licensing exam. If you pass the exam, then you will be allowed to apply for a license.
If you do not pass the exam, you can receive further training and apply again.
Apply for Your Bail Bondsman License in Virginia
Once you have passed the exam, you can submit your application to receive a license as a surety bail bondsman. Along with filling out the information in the application, you are going to have to pay a number of fees.
All of these fees go to the treasurer of Virginia. The biggest fee is the licensure application fee, which costs $900.
On top of that, there is a category fee that costs $100 and a fingerprint fee that costs $50.
If you took firearms training, then you can pay an extra $30 to apply for a firearms endorsement.
Keep Up to Date on Career Tips and Changes in the Field
At this point, you can officially apply for bail bondsman jobs in Virginia. However, if you want to keep your license, you will have to keep up-to-date on changes in the law. Every two years, your license will expire.
To keep your license, you’ll have to take an updated training course. Fortunately, this course only lasts for eight hours.
Once you have finished the course, you will submit a license application again with the same fees that you paid to receive your first license.
Understand How to Become a Virginia Surety Bail Bondsman
We hope that some of the ideas in this brief article about the most important steps toward becoming a Virginia surety bail bondsman have been helpful for you. Many people are interested in becoming a surety bail bondsman but they do not know where to start. Learning just a little bit more about the process can make taking the first step that much clearer and easier.
To learn more about how you can start moving towards becoming a surety bail bondsman in Virginia or to speak with experts in the surety bail bondsman field, feel free to check out our other materials here at any time!