The big answer first, then the factors that can change it.
Questions students, service members, Veterans, families and the people who brief them ask about VA education benefits. Each page shows where those factors are written, in the law, VA’s rules and the official pages. It lays out what the official sources say, and VA decides eligibility and benefits.
Grouped by who is asking. Pick yours, and its questions come first.
The full list. Showing all 25 questions.
Planning for the family
Yes, one at a time. Your child uses one, then the other, and each can be used in full: up to 36 months of each, 72 in all. Both count toward the 81-month limit for Chapter 35 with Chapter 33, 30 or 1606.
Read the answerBriefing
It is the limit on Chapter 35 (DEA) combined with Chapters 33, 30 or 1606: together they may not exceed 81 months. Inside it, each can be used in full, one at a time. The 48-month cap is for two or more benefits from a person’s own service.
Read the answerThinking about transferring
Yes, if you qualify: at least 6 years of service and an agreement to serve 4 more, requested in milConnect while you are still serving. Your spouse can use the months right away, whether you are still serving or have separated.
Read the answerThinking about transferring
Request the transfer in milConnect while you are still serving, and set the months for each family member. After your branch approves it, each family member applies to VA, online or with VA Form 22-1990e, and gets a Certificate of Eligibility.
Read the answerThinking about transferring
Your spouse, your children, or both, each enrolled in DEERS. Children include biological, adopted and stepchildren, wards and foster children. Parents, siblings and other family cannot receive a transfer.
Read the answerThinking about college
Full time is what your school certifies for its undergraduates, 12 or 13 credits a term, or 14 if it certifies neither. Where 12 is full time, VA’s steps count 9 to 11 credits as three-quarter and 6 to 8 as half time. Post-9/11 housing goes by the rate of pursuit.
Read the answerBuilding a lesson
TEB, Transfer of Education Benefits, is giving Post-9/11 GI Bill months to a spouse or children in DEERS. A member with at least 6 years of service who agrees to 4 more can transfer up to 36 months, requested in milConnect while still serving.
Read the answerBuilding a lesson
Chapter 33 is the Post-9/11 GI Bill: tuition and fees to the school, a monthly housing allowance and money for books. Chapter 35 is DEA, its own program for eligible spouses and children, paid monthly to the student. Someone who holds both uses them one after another.
Read the answerThinking about college
Yes, at a school VA has approved. Abroad the GI Bill pays net tuition and fees up to an annual cap and one foreign housing rate, the national average, whatever the country or city.
Read the answerAfter separation
Use VA.gov’s Check remaining GI Bill and other education benefits. It shows the months left on the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Chapter 35 (DEA) and transferred months.
Read the answerPlanning for the family
Fry pays up to 36 months at the Post-9/11 GI Bill’s full rate: tuition and fees, housing and books. DEA pays the student monthly, and the student pays the school. After a line-of-duty death on or after August 1, 2011, a child chooses one, or uses both only when DEA comes from a different event.
Read the answerFour years and out
Look the school up in VA’s GI Bill Comparison Tool, which shows each school’s housing figure. It is DoD’s BAH for an E-5 with dependents at the ZIP code of the campus where you attend most classes.
Read the answerAfter separation
No. You cannot start a transfer or add a family member after you separate, retire or move to the Individual Ready Reserve, unless a family member you named dies. Months already transferred can still be moved, taken back or restored in milConnect.
Read the answerAlready transferred
Yes. Transferred months pay at the same rate as the member’s own, set by how long the member served. A spouse gets no housing allowance while the member is on active duty; a child may get it even while the member serves.
Read the answerAlready transferred
Yes, for months VA has not paid out. In milConnect you can move months among the family members already named, take months back, or restore them, even after you separate or retire. Taking months back does not cancel the service commitment.
Read the answerPlanning for the family
Yes. A child uses transferred months before turning 26, and can start once the parent has served 10 years and the child either has a diploma or has turned 18. Months go to a child only while a dependent in DEERS; DoD’s guide says a student over 22 can no longer receive more months.
Read the answerThinking about college
At a public school, yes, at the 100 percent level: the full net cost of in-state tuition and fees. Below that, the eligibility tier sets the share. At a private or foreign school it pays up to an annual cap, and Yellow Ribbon can share what is above it.
Read the answerAfter separation
Yes, GI Bill months are charged at your rate of pursuit, so 9 credits where 12 is full time uses three-quarters of a month for each month enrolled. Housing is paid only above half time, measured by your rate of pursuit.
Read the answerNew to the paperwork
By the session’s length: credits times 18, or 12 for quarter hours, divided by the weeks in the session. Breaks of 7 days or more are left out, and 4 or more leftover days count as a week.
Read the answerAfter separation
Yes, at a lower rate. All-online study pays half the national average housing allowance, and one in-person class keeps the local rate. Housing is paid only above half time.
Read the answerHelping a Veteran back to school
No. VA does not pay for remedial or deficiency courses taken online, on the GI Bill or on Chapter 35 (DEA). Under DEA, remedial training VA does pay for is not charged against the student’s months, up to 5 months full time.
Read the answerFour years and out
No, it is DoD’s BAH for an E-5 with dependents at the ZIP code of the campus where you attend most classes, whatever your rank or family size. Your rate of pursuit and eligibility tier set your share.
Read the answerAfter separation
Not if your service ended on or after January 1, 2013. If it ended before that date, the Post-9/11 GI Bill must be used within 15 years of your last discharge, and what is left after that is lost.
Read the answerThinking about transferring
That is yours to weigh. To transfer, you need at least 6 years of service and agree to serve 4 more, requested in milConnect while you are still serving. If you do not finish the added service, your family loses the months, and what VA paid becomes your debt alone, apart from exceptions VA lists.
Read the answerAfter separation
VA pays housing after the month you were in school, prorated by the days you were enrolled. A term that starts partway through a month pays only those days, after the month ends, and pay stops between terms.
Read the answerHave a question we have not answered? Send it in. We answer it in our own words, and the person who asked is never named.
Also on Medium: GI Bill questions from the field, and where each answer is written.
The current edition of each publication, and when it last changed.
| Publication | Edition | Date |
|---|---|---|
| This page | wegotyou1776.com/questions | |
| The Order Matters, PDF | First Edition, Revised October 2026, ISBN 979-8-9967812-0-1 | |
| The Order Matters, EPUB | First Edition, Revised October 2026, ISBN 979-8-9967812-1-8 | |
| College Tool | Version 1.2.3, App Store and Google Play | |
| Reference charts | All sizes, light and dark | |
| Official sources | Citation register, 110 sources |
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