Tired of figuring out how to fix the States drop down not showing on Virtuemart? What fixed my first instance of the problem with States not showing was to tinker with the Language checkbox on the config page. However, as time went on, I must've installed a plugin that brought the problem back. I have installed a bunch of plugins and components since fixing it the first time, so it's hard to figure out which one caused the problem again.
I figured, why not remove the States drop down completely and just make a textbox for it? Since a lot of countries don't have states anyway, I made the textbox not required and placed it above the Country drop down box. Problem solved. Headache gone. Life is much happier. :)
Hope this helps someone!