What Happens Between the Time When My MGIB Runs Out and My Post 9/11 GI Bill Begins?
Q: My MGIB time runs out the first month of my next semester. I understand I am eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill for an additional 12 months. What can I expect to happen in the middle of my semester when my MGIB time runs out and it switches to the new GI Bill? Do I need to fill out any new forms in order for my benefits to continue through the middle of a semester?
A: It depends on what you mean when you say your “MGIB time runs out the first month of my next semester”. If you mean that is when you will have used up the last of your 36 months of entitlement, and you are not eligible for another GI Bill, then nothing happens and you will continue to get your MGIB payment until the end of the semester.
However if you mean that you will reach your 10-year limit in that first month, then your Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) payments stop immediately as by law the VA can’t continue paying you after that date 10 years from your last date of discharge.
Since you have the Post 9/11 GI Bill, you have to submit VA Form 22-1990 from the eBenefits website to switch to it. Just be sure to put an effective date in Block 9F that is a week or two after you think you have run out of MGIB entitlement. That way you’ll get your additional 12 months of benefits. Put in a date where you still have some MGIB benefits left and all you’ll get is that same number of days/months under the Post 9/11 GI Bill.
By the time you get your Certificate of Eligibility, it will show that you have less than 12 months of benefits left, because the VA will have deducted the amount you needed from the time when you ran out of MGIB benefits and to the end of the semester.
If you are going to hit your delimitation date, then you still need to send in the same form, but all you are going to get is the same number of months you had left under the MGIB and not get the additional 12 months. I know, it sucks, but that is the way the current rules are written.
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