Go to the VA.gov website to fill out and submit the appropriate Application for VA Education Benefits form to the VA (see below).

• 22-1990* – Use if you are applying for the Post-9/11 GI Bill for the first time.
• 22-1990e* –Use if you are a dependent (child, or spouse as defined in 1 U.S.C. § 7) applying to use a service member’s benefits. Please see Transfer of Entitlement under the Post-9/11 GI Bill® Policies section below for more information.

You may want to print a copy of this document for your records. To verify you have successfully submitted your form to the VA, a confirmation number will appear on the bottom of each page of the form you print out.

*Please be mindful of the effective date listed on the application.

Once you fill out the Application for VA Education Benefits and submit it to the VA, you will need to notify Liberty’s Office of Military Affairs that you will be using your GI Bill benefits for your enrollment. To accomplish this step, please contact us directly to advise us of the VA Chapter of benefits you will be using (Ch. 33, Ch. 30, Ch. 35, Ch. 1606). Documentation is not required to set up or use your GI Bill with Liberty University.

Once you have completed Steps 1 and 2, and you have enrolled in courses, the School Certifying Official (SCO) will process your GI Bill in a timely manner (please see the Processing Timelines section below). Your GI Bill will be processed for the number of credit hours in which you are enrolled, but for $0 tuition and fees. This will result in the payment of any housing allowance and supplies stipend you may be eligible to receive but will prevent the payment of tuition and fees to the university. You may still be able to change your classes without risk of accruing a debt for tuition and fees.

After the add/drop period of a given sub-term has been reached and you are no longer able to change your classes, we will process your GI Bill for actual tuition and fees for that specific sub-term. This will result in payment of tuition and fees to the university, which will be authorized to your student account. The VA typically releases payment one to two weeks after actual tuition and fees have been processed.

This practice is encouraged by the VA as it ensures payment of tuition and fees is not released until after the time has passed for you to change your classes. This practice also meets the requirement of the law for the school to submit a certification of enrollment for each student after the add/drop period each subterm. If this process were not followed, any changes made to your enrollment would likely result in a debt, and Liberty University would have to return GI Bill funding to the VA, thus reducing or removing credit from your account.

After your enrollment has been submitted to the VA, a confirmation email will be sent to your Liberty University email address. This email notifies you that your enrollment has been certified with the VA and you are ready to complete Financial Check-In (FCI). Please see the Financial Check-In Guide for more information on this process. FCI must be completed by the deadline corresponding with that sub-term of enrollment to secure your enrollment in the course(s).

Receiving Projected Credit in FCI:  In order to assist students with completing FCI prior to the VA issuing payment for tuition and fees, Liberty University allows students to receive a projected credit of what the VA is expected to pay. This credit is projected based upon the eligibility information provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and is posted at the time your certification is submitted to the VA.

Note: Projected credit is a Liberty University given benefit and is subject to change at any time based on updates to your benefit and payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Changes in a student’s percentage of eligibility, remaining entitlement, and any outstanding debts may result in a recalculation, and possible removal, of the projected amount. In order to have the most accurate projected credit on your account, please ensure that you notify the Office of Military Affairs if there are any changes with your benefit.

The VA typically releases payment to Liberty University one to two weeks after the actual tuition and fees have been reported to the VA. This occurs after the add/drop period for each sub-term.  Once Liberty University receives the funds for your tuition and fees from the VA, we will post the funds to your student account and/or fully authorize the projected credit on your account.

The VA will also release the funds for the books and supplies stipend and the Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA), if the student is eligible. The books stipend and MHA are paid directly to you based on the information provided to the VA on the Application for VA Education Benefits form (i.e. address or bank information).

Students receiving Post-9/11 GI Bill® (Ch. 33) benefits must verify their enrollment status each month to continue to receive their monthly housing allowance (MHA) and/or kicker payments. If a beneficiary fails to verify for two consecutive months, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will withhold any additional MHA payments until verified by the student. The book stipend and MHA are paid directly to the student based on the information provided to VA on the Application for VA Education Benefits form (i.e. address or bank information). The requirement for the student to verify their enrollment status means VA cannot accept statements from the school to verify the enrollment, as the current process for monthly certification for other education benefits allows.

Students will be able to use text messages as a simple, quick option for verifying enrollment to receive MHA payment uninterrupted. To streamline the verification process, VA is encouraging students to sign up for text messaging. To do so, students can contact the VA Education Call Center (ECC) at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) to ensure VA has their mobile phone number. After opting-in to text messages, students can simply reply to a VA text message to verify enrollment monthly. Check out the VA Monthly Enrollment Verification Communication Toolkit for more helpful information.

You are required to keep the Department of Veterans Affairs updated on any changes made to your benefit. Such changes include but are not limited to:

• Changing degree levels
• Changing your primary school of attendance

Failure to maintain the accuracy of this information with the VA may result in delayed or denied payment from the VA.

The Book Stipend will pay up to $1,000 per year (100% eligibility) and will be paid out in increments based on the amount of credit hours pursued and the percentage of eligibility. The book stipend is paid in a lump sum to the student directly once the enrollment certification has been processed by the VA. Please see Pay Rates for more information on specific book stipend pay rates.

In order for all classes to be processed for the GI Bill, they must be applicable to the Degree Completion Plan (DCP). If any of your classes are not applicable to the DCP, Liberty University will be unable to process that course for GI Bill benefits. By not having a class processed under the GI Bill, you will be responsible for paying any tuition and fees associated with the course yourself. Furthermore, if you are eligible for a housing allowance, you may have the payment reduced or not paid at all. Lastly, you will not receive any books and supplies stipend associated for the course.

The effective date is the date you wish to start using your benefit. This date is listed on the original Application for VA Education Benefits form (22-1990 or 22-1990E). The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will only pay for courses after this date. For example, if the student’s effective date is listed as 2/1/2019 and the student starts classes on 1/14/2019 the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will not pay for the dates 1/14 to 1/31. Therefore the student will be responsible for the associated charges for those days.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill will only cover fees that are directly associated with tuition and attendance at the University. For example, the Activity Fee and Class Fees can be covered. However, fees that are not required are not covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Some of these fees include: Parking Registration Fee, Library Fees, and Monthly Printing Charges.

Online Content Fees: If a course includes electronic resources, you will see a corresponding online content fee charged to your student account. This fee is waived for students enrolled in an undergraduate online program, but if you do not qualify for a waiver, the Post-9/11 GI Bill may be used to cover this fee.

Exam/Certification/Licensing Fees: The VA offers the National Testing Program for approved reimbursement of certain examinations. Reimbursement for Licensing and Certification test costs may be available as well.

Active Duty Service members and their spouses are not eligible to receive the housing stipend. Children dependents of Active Duty service members are eligible.

Eligible students attending more than 1/2 time may qualify for a Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) equal to the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) amount payable to E-5 with dependents in the 24515 zip code. Students attending at least one course in a residential setting, with a combined rate of pursuit of more than 1/2 time, may qualify for the full housing stipend, to be paid according to the percentage of eligibility. Individuals enrolled in all online courses will be eligible for a monthly housing allowance equal to 50% of the national average of all Basic Allowances for Housing, to be paid out according to the percentage of eligibility. See Pay Rates for the current housing pay rates.

Payments are issued at the beginning of each month for training that occurred during the previous month. For example, assuming timely certification of enrollment by the school and timely processing by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, payments for training taken in January will be issued by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in February. Payments are made retroactively and only for the days actually attended, so if the term starts in the middle of January, the payment received in the beginning of February will be pro-rated accordingly. The first full payment would be issued in March for the month of February.

In order for payments to be released, the student must verify their enrollment monthly with VA. VA allows students to opt-in to a simple text message verification program. To do so, students can contact the VA Education Call Center (ECC) at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) to ensure VA has their mobile phone number. If the student fails to verify their enrollments for 2 consecutive months, MHA payments will be withheld from VA until the student calls the Education Call Center to verify.

Upon registration in courses and notification that you will be using GI Bill benefits, the School Certifying Official (SCO) will initially report $0 in Tuition and Fees to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) until after the add/drop period of a given sub-term. This practice has been requested by the VA to ensure no further changes will be made to the student’s enrollment and the tuition and fees reported are accurate before the VA begins releasing payment for tuition and fees. This significantly reduces the risk of a change in enrollment causing the student to owe a debt to the VA or Liberty University.

The initial certification for $0 in Tuition and Fees will not impact the books and supplies stipend or the monthly housing allowance (if applicable). The number of credit hours enrolled will still be reported to allow the VA to issue payments for the books and supplies stipend and monthly housing allowance without delay.

Once the student’s tuition and fees are finalized after the add/drop deadline, the SCO will submit the certification for actual tuition and fees to the VA, requesting payment. Once the VA releases payment (typically 1-2 weeks), this payment will be processed to your account.

Please be aware that all of the following must be true in order for us to accurately certify your cost and credit hours to the Department of Veterans Affairs:

• You must be registered for all courses. Upon registration for courses, the student’s account will be reviewed in as timely a manner as possible, per the timeline information below.
• The course must be applicable to the Degree Completion Plan (DCP). If any of your enrolled courses are not applicable to the DCP, the certifying official will be unable to certify that course for associated tuition and fees, the books and supplies stipend, or the monthly housing allowance. Any other applicable courses will still be certified as usual.

Processing Timelines: The processing time for the GI Bill is 3-5 business days for the current semester. However, this may not be consistent for a future semester when the current semester is still active, as the current semester’s processing will take priority. For a future semester, it may take up to 30 business days for GI Bill benefits to be processed. As soon as all students have been processed for the current semester, the Office of Military Affairs will be able to prioritize the future semester. This typically occurs two weeks after the start of the current semester’s D sub-term. After that point, students should expect their courses for the future semester to be reviewed within 3-5 business days.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill will pay up to the established yearly cap in tuition for individuals that are 100% eligible. Please review the Pay Rates information for the current tuition cap.

If you are a current member of the Armed Forces, the Department of Defense (DoD) may offer you the opportunity to transfer benefits to your spouse or dependent children. The DoD is responsible for determining eligibility for transfer of entitlement. The law provides that an individual must have served at least 6 years in the Armed Forces and agrees to serve a minimum of 4 more years. For transfer of entitlement for dependent children, the service member must have served at least 10 years and still be currently serving.

In order to transfer benefits to a dependent the following steps must be taken:

The service member must go to the DoD transferability website to determine if their dependent(s) are eligible to receive the transferred benefits. This website is only available to military members.

Upon approval, the dependent may apply to use transferred benefits with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by going to the VA.gov website and filling out the 22-1990e (Step 1 above). The VA Form 22-1990e should only be completed and submitted to Liberty University by the dependent after the DoD has approved the request for Transfer of Education Benefits on the DoD website.

Per the 2014 Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding, Federal Tuition Assistance and Veterans Affairs benefits cannot be used to pay for the same course(s). There are currently 3 exceptions to this policy. Students using Post-9/11 GI Bill® are able to use their Veterans Education Benefits to cover the remaining balance for courses not completely covered by Federal Tuition Assistance. As of May 5, 2021, students using the Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve Education Benefit (MGIB-SR or Chapter 1606) may also use their benefit concurrently with Federal Tuition Assistance when they are enrolled in a program of education that is half-time or greater. Concurrent use is not authorized under Chapter 1606 when students are enrolled less than half-time. The final exception to this policy is for the Montgomery GI Bill: Active Duty (MGIB or Chapter 30) under the use of Top-Up. The Top-Up benefit may only be used with Chapter 30 to receive from the VA those tuition costs that exceed, or are not authorized in, the amount of TA provided to the service member by his/her military branch.

Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients may be certified for $0 if Tuition Assistance is covering the full cost of their course(s). This $0 certification will generate a Housing stipend for the duration of the course (for those enrolled greater than half-time), as well as a Book Stipend payment. Students should keep in mind that Active Duty students and their spouses are not eligible to receive a Monthly Housing Allowance from their GI Bill benefits. For more information about Chapter 33, please see the Post-9/11 GI Bill webpage.

Students eligible for Veterans Education Benefits will have their enrollment certified with the VA. If Federal Tuition Assistance is later applied toward a course that has been certified, the certification for Veterans Benefits will be either amended (Chapters 33 and 1606) to account for the Tuition Assistance or terminated (all other GI Bill chapters) in accordance with the 2014 Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding.