A West Virginia engineer's seal must carry the words State of West Virginia, the title Registered Professional Engineer, your registration number and your name as it appears on the register. Your written signature goes adjacent to or across the seal, and a facsimile signature is not acceptable. The cited rules fix no diameter. This page covers the wording, the devices, the signature rule and what to send when you order.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against W. Va. Code St. R. § 7-1-7.2 and the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal wording | The title Registered Professional Engineer, the words State of West Virginia, your registration number, and your name as it stands on the register. | W. Va. Code St. R. § 7-1-7.2 |
| Diameter | No measurement is fixed in the cited rules. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Shape | No shape is named. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Devices allowed | A rubber stamp, an electronic seal, or a seal that embosses. | W. Va. Code St. R. § 7-1-7.2.e |
| Signature placement | The registrant's written signature goes adjacent to or across the seal. | W. Va. Code § 30-13-16(c) |
| Facsimile signature | Not acceptable. | W. Va. Code § 30-13-16(c) |
| Documents carrying the seal | Drawings, plans, calculations, design information, specifications and reports, once any of them goes to a client or to a public or governmental agency. | W. Va. Code § 30-13-16(c) |
| Copies | When copies are made, the seal and signature on all originals, tracings and other documents have to be reproducible. | W. Va. Code St. R. § 7-1-7.3.d |
| Electronic reproduction | Authorized where the resulting reproduction meets the content specifications of section 7.2. | W. Va. Code St. R. § 7-1-7.3.g |
| Use after registration lapses | The cited provisions set no rule on it. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
Licensed in more than one place? Check each jurisdiction in professional engineer seal requirements by state.
What must a West Virginia engineer's seal show?
Four lines of content: State of West Virginia, the title Registered Professional Engineer, your registration number and your name as registered. That title is the statutory title in this state, and it is not interchangeable with licensed.
Take the name from your registration record rather than from a business card. A middle initial that appears on the register and not on the die, or a shortened first name, is the kind of mismatch that costs a reorder after a reviewer queries it.
Does West Virginia fix a size or a shape?
No. The rules read here name the wording the device must carry and stop short of any diameter, height or outline. There is no minimum to meet and no maximum to stay under.
That makes size a legibility question rather than a legal one. Four lines of text need room, so a device cut too small runs the words together at full ink coverage, and a reviewer who cannot read the registration number gets to treat the sheet as unsealed.
Which devices does the rule allow?
Three. Section 7.2.e authorizes a rubber stamp, an electronic seal and a seal that embosses, and the statute separately confirms the rubber stamp. No format is preferred in the text itself.
The reproduction duty is what separates them in practice, and it is covered in the next section. Licensees who want a raised impression for the record copy commonly pair an embosser with an inked stamp, and the embossing device is described on the West Virginia engineer embossing seal.
Why does the copy rule point toward an inked stamp?
Section 7.3.d requires that when copies are made, the seal and signature on originals, tracings and other documents be reproducible. An embossed impression on its own carries no ink, so it frequently disappears on a photocopy or a scan.
Ink survives duplication, which is why the rubber stamp is the safer default for the documents that leave your office. Emboss the set you keep if you want the raised mark, and let the inked device do the work on everything that gets copied.
Where does your signature go?
Against the seal itself. The statute requires the registrant's written signature to sit adjacent to or across the seal whenever the seal is applied, so a signature elsewhere on the sheet does not satisfy the requirement.
Leave room for it when you position the impression. A seal pressed into a tight corner of the title block often leaves nowhere compliant to sign.
What counts as a facsimile signature, and why does it fail?
Any reproduction of your signature rather than the act of signing. The statute is flat about it: a facsimile signature is not acceptable. That rules out a signature stamp, an image of your signature pasted into a title block, and a signature printed with the sheet.
This is the West Virginia rule most often broken by habit rather than intent, because signature graphics are ordinary in drafting software elsewhere. Order a seal device by all means, but sign in your own hand.
Which documents need the seal?
Drawings and plans, specifications and reports, and design information and calculations, once any of them goes to a client or to a public or governmental agency. The trigger is delivery to someone outside your own work, not the stage of the drawing.
Calculations and design information are named alongside the drawings, which is wider than a drawings only reading of the duty. If a calculation package goes to a reviewing authority, it carries the seal and the signature too.
Are electronic seals allowed in West Virginia?
Yes, though without a named technology. Section 7.2.e lists electronic as a permitted format, and section 7.3.g allows the seal to be reproduced electronically, provided that reproduction still shows everything section 7.2 calls for.
What the rules do not do is relax the signature. The facsimile bar in the statute applies whatever the seal format, so an electronically applied seal still needs a signature that you actually make rather than one the file already holds.
What happens when a registration lapses?
The cited provisions do not address the device after lapse. No section quoted here tells a registrant to surrender, destroy or stop using the seal, so there is no West Virginia rule to point to on that question.
The sealing duty itself is written for a registrant, which is the practical limit on it. Background on the standing the seal represents is set out on what the West Virginia engineering seal signals.
What do we need to make your West Virginia seal?
Your name exactly as registered, your registration number, and the device type you want. The two fixed phrases, State of West Virginia and Registered Professional Engineer, come from the rule and are set by us.
A proof comes back before anything is cut. Read the number digit by digit against your registration card, since a transposed pair is invisible on a proof you skim and obvious on a sheet under review.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a seal that says Licensed Professional Engineer?
Not for West Virginia. The rule fixes the phrase Registered Professional Engineer, and the state's wording is part of what makes the device valid here. A seal cut for another state's legend does not convert.
How do I check the impression before I use it?
Stamp a test sheet, then copy and scan that sheet. Read all four required items on the copy rather than on the original, because section 7.3.d measures the seal by what survives duplication.
Is a date required next to the seal?
The provisions cited here require the written signature adjacent to or across the seal and do not add a date requirement of their own. Check the submittal instructions of the agency receiving the work for anything further.
Does an embosser alone satisfy the rules?
It is a permitted format, but on its own it sits awkwardly with the copy rule, since a raised impression usually does not reproduce. Most registrants carry an inked stamp for issued documents and use the embosser on retained originals.
Can my firm hold the seal rather than me?
The seal carries your name as registered and your registration number, and the signature beside it has to be yours in your own hand. It is a personal device whoever pays for it.
Does the state say how large the text on the seal should be?
No text height is prescribed in the cited rules. We set the type so that all four required items stay separate and legible at the diameter you choose.
Send your registered name and registration number and we will proof a compliant device before cutting. The formats available are on the West Virginia engineer stamps and seals page.
