Department of Motor Vehicles

This is the best DMV I’ve ever been to, and that is counting several states and many individual cities. The Saturday wait time here is like the weekday wait time anywhere else — and if you go on a weekday, you’ll be in and out in a flash. The bureaucracy is inevitable, but the staff here is actually helpful and kind (and remarkably efficient compared to other VA locations). Highly recommend going during the weekday afternoons if you must go at all.

The two stars are for the amount of time it took to get through the information line. An hour and a half standing in line is too long. It only took me 15 mins to get done what I needed. The DMV needs to offer late evening hours during the week to accommodate people who work during the week.

This review covers two recent visits to this fine establishment, because I’ve never been to a DMV just once.
Visit 1:
After recently moving back to Virginia from lovely Tejas, I obviously needed to get a VA driver’s license and change the registration on my Prius. That’s right, I drive a Prius.
Doors open at 8:00 on Saturday mornings and arriving at 7:45 earned me the 15^th spot in line out front. Once the doors opened, it took about 15 minutes to check in at the main desk and then another 15 minutes or so of waiting to get called up to the counter.
I managed to squint my way through another vision exam and obtained my new license, complete with awkward-grin-because-you-can’t-show-teeth photo. There were some issues with the flimsy registration paper the Toyota dealership in TX gave me when I bought the Prius (that’s right, still driving the Prius), but the manager was super helpful and said it looked good.
Here’s where this place earned major points in my book… right before it was about time to pay, the lady at the counter told me that since I have a hybrid and there was a soon-​to-​expire tax still in effect on hybrids, I could save $ 60+ if I just came back in a few weeks. I don’t know that any bureaucracy has ever made my life easier, so score one for the good guys. The manager even signed my Texas registration to OK it in case anyone on my next visit gave me a hard time.
Visit 2:
This visit was during their last business hour on a Thursday, included no wait at the main desk, but then an unfortunate 60 minute wait before being called up to the counter. An hour spent trying to decipher the logic behind the letter/​number combination on the ticket you’re given vs. the reason you’re there vs. the window to which your’e called yielded little results. The code cannot be cracked.
I ended up being called to window #9, which turns out the be the main desk… who knew? Once being called, the process was quick, I received my new plates, and I got on my merry way.
Conclusion:
This is like any DMV location in that it’s not the greatest of facilities, but nobody working there was unfriendly, the wait times weren’t absurd like at some other locations, and they were super honest about me being able to save money by coming back a few weeks later. I’d definitely recommend this location if you live anywhere nearby. The only thing preventing the fifth star would be the hour-​long wait on my second visit.

Considering the large number of customers, the staff is very kind and helpful.

I can’t believe I’m giving a DMV 5 stars. I can’t believe I was so impressed by this place that I am actually ADDING IT ON Unilocal when it didn’t exist and I could have kept it all to myself.
I had been to this DMV before… and it sucked. Once a snotty girl working the front desk made an inappropriate comment about how young I was to be getting divorced already (I was there to change my name on my license) and a meeting with her supervisor commenced shortly after. But that might as well have been a completely different DMV.
I moved away and came back and it’s like someone transported the «Pleasantville» DMV to Winchester and dropped it right down on top of the old one.
My girlfriend and I walked in here on the first of the month prepared to spend atleast 2 hours getting stink-​eye from every customer and employee in the place but instead all we got were smiles! After standing in line at the front desk for under 10 minutes, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic, ultra-​big-​grin older lady who answered all my questions politely and sent me on my way to wait.
I waited less than 20 minutes for them to call my number.
SHOCKING!!!
And then, the girl that helped me register my car was also enthusiastic (bubbly, even!) and polite. Everyone was so nice! And everything went so smoothly!
We honestly left the place and just stared at each other slack-​jawed for a good minute, not sure what had just happened.
Some might say that my HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, panic-​attack-​inducing 4-​hour experiences at the Oakland, California DMVs made a normal Virginia DMV visit seem spectacular in comparison… but I don’t think that’s it.
I think this really is just a DMV with happy employees who don’t hate their lives, jobs, and the customers they have to serve every day.
Is it just asking for trouble to say I’m almost looking forward to the next time I have to go here?