The genus Vicia comprises 166 annual or perennial species distributed mainly in Europe, Asia, and North America, also extending to the temperate regions of South America and tropical. However, utilization of SSR markers have not been investigated extensively in Vicia species as compared to other crop species. Here, we have assessed the potential for transferability (cross-species amplification) of cDNA microsatellites markers developed from common vetch (Vicia sativa subsp. sativa). In total, 226 alleles were detected in 36 microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per marker ranged from one to 20, with an average of 6.3. The gene diversity and polymorphism information content value averaged 0.540 and 0.503, with a range of 0–0.85 and 0–0.84 respectively. For transferability of the SSRs, amplification was carried out with selected from two to 8 accessions of 22 different Vicia species. For individual species, the successful amplification rate ranged from 32.6% in V. ervilia to 81.9% in V. sativa subsp. nigra, with average of 48.8%. As the rate of successful amplification of microsatellite markers generally correlates with genetic distance, these SSR markers are potentially useful in the analysis of genetic relationships between or within Vicia species.