With the new Post 9/11 GI Bill comes a great benefit for those that are married or have dependents. A lot of service members have either already completed college or the Military is paying for their college separate from the G.I. Bill. With the old Montgomery GI Bill, if you had already graduated college, or if the Army is footing the bill for your tuition, the benefit of the Montgomery G.I. Bill was useless.
The new Post 9/11 GI Bill allows any member of the Armed Forces to transfer their G.I. Benefits to their spouse or other dependent. If you have the Montgomery G.I. Bill, don’t fret, it is rather easy to get it converted to the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill. You must however meet certain requirements which you can find at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Once you have determined that you meet the requirements to have it converted, you must go to the DoD transferability application website to determine if your dependents are eligible to receive the transferred benefits and to request the transfer of benefits. This website is only available to military members.
Once the transfer has been approved (an email will be sent to the sponsor) the spouse or dependent will need to submit VA form 22-1990E available at http://www.gibill.va.gov/apply-for-b…s/application/ to get their education file established with the VA.
Once the form has been submitted you should receive an email from the VA stating that is was transfered to the local office. Approximately 3 months after that (depending on how back logged they are) you should receive a letter in the mail stating you were approved for benefits.
Before you enroll with the school of your choice, make sure to verify that they not only take the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill but the course you wish to enroll in is also approved for it. Make sure you specify that it is the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill not the Montgomery G.I. Bill.
As of the publishing of this article, not all accredited schools are accepting the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill due to the long approval process with the VA. Additionally, those that do accept the Post 9/11 GI Bill may only offer 1 or 2 degrees that can be used with the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill. So make sure to check first before enrolling in the college.
NOTE: If your sponsor is active duty you will NOT get the additional allowances offered to those whose sponsors have already separated from the service. Additionally, the money for the tuition goes directly to the school. It may be beneficial for you to wait till your sponsor has separated from active duty in order to get the additional money if his or her ETS is coming up.
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