Virgin Islands
TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN Professions and Occupations
Chapter 9. Licensing of Businesses and Occupations
Subchapter I. General Provisions
27 V.I.C. § 302 (2006)
§ 302. Same; business, occupations, professions and trades covered; fees
(a) The following annual license fees are made applicable to and shall be levied
upon all persons and associations engaged in the designated businesses,
occupations, professions and trades in the Virgin Islands of the United States.
(note: the annual fee to obtain a license for Installation of
Fire and Burglary Alarm Systems is $200)
(b) Any person or association engaged in a business, occupation, profession, or
trade not designated in subsection (a) of this section or not covered by any
other provision of this Code shall obtain an annual license at a fee determined
by the Commissioner as reasonable to defray the costs of regulation, but not to
exceed $500.
(c) For the purposes of this chapter, "hotels and guesthouses" shall be
construed to mean establishments used for providing rooms and related
accommodations for guests, and shall include such establishments feeding their
own guests but not otherwise conducting a restaurant business, and "night club"
shall be construed to mean every business which has a capacity for at least
thirty (30) persons seated at tables and the bar, and which employs a bartender
and which maintains table service and dancing and/or other live entertainment
for the guests. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the
Commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs may issue a Tavern Keeper
B-fermented spirits only-license to mobile, food and mobile refreshment vendors.
(d) No license shall be issued to any person or association to engage in an
investment brokerage business in the Virgin Islands for the purpose of buying
and selling stocks, bonds, and other securities and debentures to and for
others, unless the person or association pays the required annual license fee,
and, in addition, files with the Commissioner, for the protection of its
customers, a good and sufficient bond signed by the person or association as
principal, with one or more sureties to be approved by the Commissioner and
running to the Commissioner and his successors in office, in a sum of $50,000,
with condition that the surety or sureties on the bond shall be answerable to
the amount of the bond for all judgments, decrees, or orders given, made, or
rendered against the principal on the bond by any court of competent
jurisdiction in the Virgin Islands for payment of money. In case of any breach
of the condition of any bond, the Commissioner may, and upon demand and receipt
of satisfactory assurance for the payment of costs shall, enforce the bond
either in his own name or in the name of any person as obligee therein by
appropriate proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction for the use and
benefit of any person injured by the breach. The surety or sureties on the bond
may withdraw from obligations under the bond upon written notice to the
Commissioner at least ninety (90) days prior to the date on which the then
existing license of authorization is to expire. Such surety or sureties shall,
however, remain liable on the bond for all judgments, decrees, or orders given,
made, or rendered against the principal, based on obligations incurred during
the period of suretyship.
(e) No person shall go into or upon any private or commercial premises in the
Virgin Islands, not having been requested or invited to do so by the owner,
owners, occupant or occupants of said private or commercial premises, as a
solicitor, peddler, hawker, salesman, itinerant vendor or transient merchant,
for the purpose of selling or procuring orders or subscriptions thereto (except
magazines and newspapers published in the Virgin Islands), or for any other
commercial or business purposes without first obtaining a door-to-door license
as required by this chapter. For the purposes of this chapter an "Itinerant
Vendor" license shall be required for all persons selling and delivering
merchandise at retail other than from a retail store located within the Virgin
Islands.
(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, persons
owning and residing in apartment houses with less than five units shall not be
required to obtain a license under any provision of this chapter.
(g) An owner of an apartment house or houses shall not be required more than one
license under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section and shall pay
annually only one license fee to be determined by the total number of apartment
units owned by such person.
(h) Every person or association who has been issued a license pursuant to the
provisions of this chapter shall display the license in a conspicuous manner at
the location identified in the license as the place of business.
27 V.I.C. § 303 (2006)
§ 303. Process of applications
(a) Upon the receipt of an application for an initial license under the
provisions of this chapter, the Commissioner shall submit copies of the
application to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (V.I.P.D.) for
verification of the police record stated on the application, to the Virgin
Islands Historic Preservation Commission, Department of Planning and Natural
Resources for construction and site acceptability, to the Department of Health
in the case of a business, occupation, trade or profession involving food
operations, and to pay any other pertinent agency or instrumentality of the
Government of the United States Virgin Islands or of the United States for the
purpose of obtaining reasonable information or approval determined necessary by
the Commissioner for action upon the application. In the case of Foreign Sales
Corporations, a license to do business shall be granted within three (3)
business days of the receipt of the application, provided that the license shall
be subsequently revoked if, upon receipt of the information, the Commissioner
determines that a license would not have been granted had the information been
received prior to the granting of a license.
(b) The Commissioner may establish reasonable conditions and terms in any
initial or renewed license reasonably related to the business, occupation,
profession, or trade, the violation or breach of which may result in the
revocation or suspension of the license according to the provisions of section
304 of this chapter.
(c) Subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to foreign sales
corporations.
(d) A processing fee, in an amount established by the Commissioner, shall be
payable to the Government of the Virgin Islands upon the submission of an
application to the Department for an initial license or renewal.
27 V.I.C. § 307b (2006)
§ 307b. License conspicuously placed
Any business licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall display their
business license(s) prominently at all times in their place of business and
clearly identifiable by the consumer.