If I’m Retiring on 1 August 2013, Can I Still Transfer My Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits to My Son?
Q: Hello! My question is I have an approved retirement date of 1 August 2013. I would like to transfer to the Post 9/11 GI Bill and leave it to my son? Will I be able to? Do I have to stay in the military longer to do this? Thanks!
A: If you haven’t gone on terminal leave yet, you might still be able to make a transfer of benefits, but you are cutting it much too tight to be sure. But to try, go to the milConnect website now and click on the Transfer of Benefits Section. Follow the instructions. Keep going back to the website and look for a status of “Transfer Approved”. Once that happens, which can take up to 10 weeks, your son can go to the eBenefits website and submit VA Form 22-1990e to get his Certificate of Eligibility. He would need that form when enrolling in school as a student using Post 9/11 GI Bill transferred benefits.
The issue you most likely would run into is that the VA would not have approved your transfer request before you go on terminal leave.
After 1 August, anyone making a Post 9/11 GI Bill transfer request would incur an automatic four-year extension regardless if s/he is retirement eligible or not. The issue some servicemembers would run into is if they do not have at least four years left until they reach their Retention Control Point or High Year Tenure; if that is the case, then they can not get a transfer request approved.
I don’t know if you just found out about the transfer process now or not, but it would have been much better to have done this a year or so ago. That way your transfer would have been assured and your son would have had Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to go to school. I’m of the opinion that it is now too late, but it won’t hurt to try.
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