Last Updated on August 8, 2019
This information is from the VA’s website.
Eligibility
Any member of the Armed Forces (active duty or Selected Reserve, officer or enlisted) on or after August 1, 2009, who is eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and:
- Has at least 6 years of service in the Armed Forces on the date of election and agrees to serve 4 additional years in the Armed Forces from the date of election.
- Has at least 10 years of service in the Armed Forces (active duty and/or selected reserve) on the date of election, is precluded by either standard policy (service or DoD) or statute from committing to 4 additional years, and agrees to serve for the maximum amount of time allowed by such policy or statute, or
- Is or becomes retirement eligible during the period from August 1, 2009, through August 1, 2013. A service member is considered to be retirement eligible if he or she has completed 20 years of active duty or 20 qualifying years of reserve service.
- For those individuals eligible for retirement on August 1, 2009, no additional service is required.
- For those individuals who have an approved retirement date after August 1, 2009, and before July 1, 2010, no additional service is required.
- For those individuals eligible for retirement after August 1, 2009, and before August 1, 2010, 1 year of additional service after approval of transfer is required.
- For those individuals eligible for retirement on or after August 1, 2010, and before August 1, 2011, 2 years of additional service after approval of transfer are required.
- For those individuals eligible for retirement on or after August 1, 2011, and before August 1, 2012, 3 years of additional service after approval of transfer required.
An individual approved to transfer an entitlement to educational assistance under this section may transfer the individual’s entitlement to:
- The individual’s spouse.
- One or more of the individual’s children.
- Any combination of spouse and child.
A family member must be enrolled in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System (DEERS) and be eligible for benefits, at the time of transfer to receive transferred educational benefits.
A child’s subsequent marriage will not affect his or her eligibility to receive the educational benefit; however, after an individual has designated a child as a transferee under this section, the individual retains the right to revoke or modify the transfer at any time.
A subsequent divorce will not affect the transferee’s eligibility to receive educational benefits; however, after an individual has designated a spouse as a transferee under this section, the eligible individual retains the right to revoke or modify the transfer at any time.
Nature of Transfer
An eligible Service member may transfer up to the total months of unused Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, or the entire 36 months if the member has used none.
Family member use of transferred educational benefits is subject to the following:
- Spouse:
- May start to use the benefit immediately.
- May use the benefit while the member remains in the Armed Forces or after separation from active duty.
- Is not eligible for the monthly stipend or books and supplies stipend while the member is serving on active duty.
- Can use the benefit for up to 15 years after the service member’s last separation form active duty.
- Child:
- May start to use the benefit only after the individual making the transfer has completed at least 10 years of service in the Armed Forces.
- May use the benefit while the eligible individual remains in the Armed Forces or after separation from active duty.
- May not use the benefit until he/she has attained a secondary school diploma (or equivalency certificate), or reached 18 years of age.
- Is entitled to the monthly stipend and books and supplies stipend even though the eligible individual is on active duty.
- Is not subject to the 15-year delimiting date, but may not use the benefit after reaching 26 years of age.
To Apply
First you must go to the DoD transferability application website to determine if your dependents are eligible to receive the transferred benefits. This website is only available to military members.
Click here to visit that site (non-VA Link, Internet Explorer only)
Upon approval, family members may apply to use transferred benefits with VA by completing VA Form 22-1990e. VA Form 22-1990e should only be completed and submitted to VA by the family member after DoD has approved the request for TEB. Do not use VA Form 22-1990e to apply for TEB.
To access the electronic version of VA Form 22-1990e click here
My husband has served 6 years and will probably be medically retired. Can he transfer his GI Bill to me or are the rules above all that apply? thanks.
To my knowledge, there is not a special provision that would allow him to transfer benefits under a medical retirement. You can always check with the VA to be sure about transferability requirements.
Yes, if the SM is being medically retired and trooper can not fulfill the SRR. The SM can still participate in TEB. The obligation end date will be the date of retirement.
I have 12 years in the services and i will probably be medically board i traid to transfer benefits to my family but my counselor said i have to wait until i get out of the army is this is true? if not what regulation covers this ? i beeen working with this dilema for almost 7 month i did a 4187 sign by commander and battallion comander aproving this but the counselor said i have to wait until a get out please help
I’m not sure if you will see this reply since this thread is kind of old, but please do not wait to transfer your GI Bill benefits. My husband was also told that he could transfer his benefits after he was medically retired and this is absolutely not true. You have to be on AD in order to transfer them and under the current bill, you will be unable to do so after retirement. There is some speculation that you can still transfer the benefits to your children after retirement but I have yet to find confirmation of this. A lot of people are being given incorrect info on this and being told they can wait and then finding out they are too late to do it. There is a proposal in the works to try and change this but it hasn’t gone through yet.
My husband is a reservist and has 20 yrs in total betwen active and reserve duty. Does the transfer program apply to reservist too??
The way I am reading it, it would. However, please call the nearest VA office to be sure.
My husband is in the reserves and will be transferring his post9/11 benifits over to me. He is NOT on active duty at this time.
Does this mean I will recieve the montly stipend?
No where does it say to what age does a dependent have before they are ineligible to receive my education benefits. Except that a dependent had to be registered in DEERs. I retired from the Army last July with a combined 40 year service between active and reserve duty. I’m a Viet Nam era veteran and a Iraqi War vet as well. My question is can I still trasnfer my GI Bill education benefits to my daughter who is 24 years old?
I am being medically retired after 4 years of a 6 year contract served. Is there any way to transfer the GI Bill to my spouse seeing as how the Navy is taking responsibility for me being unable to complete 10 years?