As a veteran or active duty member of the United States military, you may qualify for a VA home Loan. In order to know whether you meet the criteria, you will need to obtain a VA home loan certificate of eligibility.

Getting this document is easy, but you will need to show that you meet the criteria by providing the right paperwork. Here's what you need to know about getting your certificate of eligibility and applying for a VA home loan.

I just pulled my own COE from VA.gov on their eBenefits site. Here's what it looks like:

The VA Certificate is a simple PDF that lists your name, last 4 of your Social Security Number, your branch of service, Entitlement code, and whether you are exempt from the VA funding fee.

What is full entitlement on a VA COE?

You have “full entitlement” on your VA loan COE if your basic entitlement listed as $36,000.

Note that this doesn't mean the VA will only fund up to $36,000. Read the fine print below:

THIS VETERAN'S BASIC ENTITLEMENT IS $36,000* TOTAL ENTITLEMENT CHARGED TO PREVIOUS VA LOANS IS $0* The Veteran is eligible for the home loan benefits of Chapter 37, Title 38, U.S. Code, subject to any condition(s) cited below. Basic entitlement available to a Veteran is $36,000. Entitlement previously used may be restored when the property is sold, or the loan is paid-in-full. For loans above $144,000, the maximum amount of entitlement available to a Veteran with full entitlement is 25 percent of the loan amount. For Veterans who have previously used entitlement and such entitlement has not been restored, the maximum amount of entitlement available to the Veteran, is 25 percent of the Freddie Mac conforming loan limit (CLL) reduced by the amount of entitlement previously used (not restored) by the Veteran. CLL loan limits are adjusted annually, and the current limits are available at www.homeloans.va.gov.

Full entitlement on a VA COE

If you read closely, it states that for loans above $144,000, the maximum entitlement is 25% of the loan amount. This means that if you can qualify for a $1,000,000 mortgage on a house, then the VA will guarantee up to $250,000.

Entitlement Code 10 on VA COE

Most veterans who served on active duty in the last 20-30 years will receive an entitlement code of 10. This represents an enlisted date during or after the Gulf War, which the VA has defined as enlistment between 8/2/1990 – present. Maybe it's time to update that since we've started and ended several wars since then?

Here is a list of all the VA entitlement codes you can find on the COE.

VA Entitlement Codes

Learn more about VA home loans in our in depth article.

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