Frequently Asked Questions

Every student using VA Educational Benefits MUST certify their enrollment for each term they desire to use their benefits. Students may certify for more then one term at a time, but enrollment in all terms must be finalized prior to submitting a certification form. Additionally, to receive a VA deferment of tuition and fees, the student must certify his/her enrollment before the Add/Drop period expires. The time to certify is immediately after you have finalized your enrollment in the terms you desire to certify. Students that change their enrollment (add, drop or swap classes) repeatedly and/or submit several Cert Forms for a term slow down the entire certification process for all students. All enrollment Changes must be reported to Veteran Services within 15 days.

The certification request form may be downloaded from the Forms section of this website. If you download the form, it must be completed, signed and submitted to the Veteran Services Office for processing. All forms submitted must be typed or they will not be accepted. New VA supported students to UCF must complete a Check List Briefing and should plan to visit Veteran Services. On special occasions, this can be coordinated by phone and fax.

Any student who submits their certification paperwork before the end of add/drop registration will automatically have their payment deadline deferred. Certifications received after add/drop will NOT receive a deferment.

To confirm that a deferment has been applied to your account, students should check their fee invoice on the normal payment deadline (the second Friday of classes.) If a deferment has been applied a new due date will be shown. Students should also make sure that fees have been correctly applied. If there is an error, the beginning of a term is the time to resolve it. Waiting until the deferment deadline to bring up a billing issue makes solving problems much more difficult. If you are supposed to be deferred but your fee invoice does not reflect a new payment date, contact Veteran Services immediately.

Prior to using VA benefits, all students must be accepted into UCF and enrolled in classes. Veteran Services can not certify hours or accept VA paperwork until both of these requisites are met. This is for your benefit, as submitting piecemeal paperwork to VA will actually slow their processing down, rather then speed it up. For more information on admission to UCF please visit http://www.admissions.ucf.edu.

All students should ensure that contact information in myUCF is up to date, especially the email address. Information provided Veteran Services should be the same.

If you have never used your benefits, or are transferring to UCF, the following documents are required:

We have all of the other forms you will need to fill out. Also, you may download any additional forms from the Forms section of this website.

The amount of money you will receive will depend on your VA Chapter, and your enrollment hours. The chart below details current amounts of monthly benefits for Graduate and Undergraduate students. (All rates effective as of 1 October 2007)

Students enrolled in 5 credit hours or less may receive one payment for tuition and fees for the entire semester, instead of monthly payments. This is a one time check, and thus all tuition & fee certifications must be held until the first day of the semester before submittal to the Regional Processing Office. Tuition and fee details for undergraduates and graduates can be found on the Fee Schedule for current term.

For the Fall and Spring terms:

If you take more than the hours shown above for full time you will not be reimbursed more than full time, and these additional hours will not roll over to a semester in which you are enrolled for less than full time.

Students enrolled in Continuing Education Programs will receive VA educational benefits according to the clock hours per week they attend class. These students, working with Continuing Education, must provide attendance records, and completion certificates for each completed module or course of training.

For undergraduate and graduate students, enter your information into the calculator below, and click the ‘$’ sign to calculate the amount of money you will receive for the semester.

All amounts for Less Than Half Time (LTHT) will show 2007 and 2008 Tuition & Fees. New fee amounts will be posted when received. All Chapters’ Tuition & Fees are held to less than ½ time and may be shown as simple Tuition & Fees ($ per Credit Hour) and not the true amount considering the maximum pay levels for each Chapter. The amount shown may be more than actual benefits received.

Undergraduate hours for the Summer Sessions can be determined by the chart below. The tuition rates and the amount of money a student will normally receive will be found here.

Graduate Pay Rates follow the Graduate Catalog. A Graduate Student enrolled in six hours or more during the summer will receive full time benefits. Enrolled in 4 or 5 hrs, ¾ time, and enrolled in three hours, ½ time. The student must be enrolled to receive these benefits. For example, a graduate student enrolls in six hours during A Session only; he/she will be paid full time for only the 40 days of Session A. If enrolled in 6 hours in C Session, the graduate student will receive benefits for the full 82 day summer term.

Normal processing of a new student receiving VA educational benefits for all Chapters may take 45-70 days and recertification 25-50 days. You must financially plan for this delay. For Chapters 30, 1607, and 1606 that must verify monthly, the WAVE system has been fixed and you will get up to date information as to the status of your VA benefit claim. Do not make changes to your status in WAVE or online unless you have informed Veteran Services of such changes first. The RPO will only call us to verify your change, and if we do not have anything or have not run a query that tells us of your changes, Veteran Services can do nothing but contact you and ask what your status is. You may contact the RPO at any time for status; however, Veteran Services will only get involved with your question of status on or after 50 days from the time the RPO acknowledges receipt of your claim. You may contact Veteran Services and get your ECAP Certification ID Number, and then contact the RPO, speaking to a counselor. The number for verifying your enrollment monthly is 1-877-VAE-CERT. You must (Ch 30, 1607 & 1606) verify monthly. This is the advised method. Another method is to use Web Automated Verification of Enrollment (WAVE) at https://www.gibill.va.gov/wave/. The RPO telephone number is 1-888-442-4551, and then dial 1, 0, and then dials 1 after the second voice answers if you wish to speak to an RPO processor.

Chapter 35 students will receive benefits by mail. It is imperative that these students ensure their mailing address is up-to-date at the RPO. The address we report every time a certification is submitted for enrollment will be the address where the benefit check is mailed. Chapter 35 students residing at a different local address MUST tell us not to change the address in VA-ONCE. At the end of each semester, we verify Ch 35 attendance using a special form (22-6553) sent to us from the RPO.

All certifications are submitted electronically to the Atlanta Regional Processing Office (RPO). Processing time is dependent on our processing backlog, the RPO backlog; accuracy of information, the ECAP date (RPO receipt date) and information the RPO needs to process. As an example, the RPO computers are programmed to automatically process 20% of Chapter 30 claims that have no other action except certification of enrollment. These certifications are processed within 10 days after RPO receipt. Experience tells us that processing time varies between 25 and 54 days after RPO receipt (ECAP Date). Students that have not received a response from the RPO after 60 days of cert action should contact us for immediate investigation and action. For Fall 06, of the several hundred requests we received for investigation, we found three records that needed action for pay. All of the other claims were completed within the above timeframes.

You are eligible for benefits if you meet one of the following criteria:

• (Chapter 30, MGIB) Have served 2/3 of an enlistment contract, and paid into the active duty MGIB system for 1 year; OR
• (Chapter 1606, MGIB Selected Reserves) Are a member of the Florida National Guard or Reserve component of an Armed Service with a contract greater than 6 years; OR
• (Chapter 35, DEA, Dependent Education Assistance) Are the dependant or spouse of a service member who has been awarded a “permanent and total” service connected disability, or who became deceased while on active duty, or due to a service connected disability, OR
• (Chapter 1607, REAP, Reserve Educational Assistance Program) Have been called up for Homeland Security or Overseas Assignment in support of Enduring Freedom or other approved action for more than 90 days continuous. Eligibility is determined by the Regional Processing Office, OR
• (Chapter 31, Vocational Rehabilitation) Approved to receive Vocational Rehabilitation benefits and have a VA Vocational Rehabilitation counselor assigned. Eligibility is determined by Vocational Rehabilitation.

For more information visit the GI BILL website at http://www.gibill.gov.

Download and print the "Short Term Advance" form from the UCF Financial Aid web site. Fill the form out completely, following the instructions, and bring it in to the Veteran Services office. The STL is a UCF Financial Aid loan, not a VA loan; however, you are authorized to receive the loan because you are receiving VA Educational Benefits. We will verify your VA eligibility, and carry the application to Financial Aid, normally the same day received. Normally, the maximum amount that you can receive is $600 or less once a term; however, any special considerations, such as additional funding or a second STL for the term, may be requested from a VA Certifying Official, but must be justified. All STLs are programmed to be repaid by the date stated on the form, or a $25 late fee will be assessed by Financial Aid. There is no interest, but there is a $5.00 processing fee for a STL.

To receive VA Educational Benefits, you must be eligible and submit an application to begin your benefits. Applications for all chapters are available in the Veteran Services office, or in the Forms section of this website. Completed and signed applications need to be brought to or mailed to the UCF Veteran Services office, except for Vocational Rehabilitation applications which are submitted to the Vocational Rehabilitation Office in Orlando. Faxed applications are not acceptable. Specific questions can be answered by Veteran Services personnel.

If your home school is UCF, you must use a UCF Transient Form if you are taking courses at another college. If you are a visiting student, you must use your home school’s Transient Form. Both school’s Registrar require a copy of this form. The Transient Form must list the classes, and course numbers that you are taking at the secondary institution, and be readable. We suggest that you copy the first page and submit that copy to Veteran Services at UCF, so our scanning system may scan a readable copy. The Transient Form must be approved by an academic advisor. It is a contract between you and your home school that states those transient courses will be accepted by your home school for credit toward your major. In submitting this Transient Form, the student acknowledges their responsibility to send their home school a TRANSCRIPT of the transient coursework. For UCF transient students, if this is not done within 30 days after the term ends, Veteran Services will not allow further enrollment certification at UCF, and will report to the transient school’s VA Certifying Office that no transcript was received by UCF. The home school VA Certifying Official must, by law, terminate VA Educational Benefits for the transient course work.

Additionally, electronic Transient Forms can be found at http://www.facts.org. If used, bring the email verification you receive showing approval for transient status to a Veteran Services representative, along with your Cert Form, and you will be processed.

The UCF Veteran Services office can only certify you for the hours that you take with UCF. You are required to certify transient course work at the Veteran Service’s Office of the Transient institution.

To transfer from another school (i.e. Valencia Community College) you must complete, and submit a VA Change of Place/Training Form along with your Cert Form. These forms are available in the Veteran Services Office or can be completed and printed from the Forms section of this website, and hand carried, faxed, or mailed. This will make UCF your “Home” institution, and will also be used to change your major or degree (AA to BA, BS, BABA, BSBA, etc.) If you are transferring from another region into the Atlanta RPO, you should provide all documentation that covers eligibility, enrollment, change of location, kicker and college fund information or anything you consider important for your processing. Veteran Services will submit all of this documentation to the RPO to enable quicker processing.

You are required to notify Veteran Services of any change or addition of majors and/or minors. Before contacting Veteran Services you must submit a major or minor change form to the UCF Registrar’s Office. At the same time or once the university system acknowledges the change, you must complete and submit a VA Change of Place/Training form (form DD- 22 xx95) to Veteran Services. These forms are available in the Veteran Services office or can be completed online and printed from the Forms section of this website. Please understand that these two actions are totally independent of each other. Since it takes up to a week for myUCF to acknowledge a major change, giving the Major Change Form to a VS representative to see and submit for you, will eliminate holding your Cert Action or other processing waiting for your major to change in myUCF.

When declaring a second major or adding a minor be aware that DVA will only approve a multiple courses of study that apply toward a single, specified career goal. Most undergraduate courses of study require 120 hours to complete. If a Dual Major or a Minor requires more hours than the hours required for the primary degree a student must provide Veteran Services with a Dual Major/Minor Form (DMMF) that will be submitted to the State Approving Agency. This form is available in our office, or in the Forms section of this website. All DMMF forms must be approved by a college advisor and can not be submitted after a student has earned more then 90 hours toward their primary major.

DVA will pay for you to re-take a class a second time, as long as you received a punitive grade (One that counts against your GPA). Grades, such as X, NC, and W do not count toward your GPA. If, using Grade Forgiveness, a punitive grade is changed to non- punitive, after the semester is over, no reduction of course load will result. An NP grade; however, will create a reduction of course load and possibly cause an overpayment.

NOTE: If you received a grade forgiveness, based on a replacement course you took in 2006, and that grade forgiveness generated an overpayment, please contact us for review and guidance to possibly return those educational benefits back to you.

DVA will provide educational benefits for those courses approved by DVA and found in the Undergraduate and Graduate catalogs, provided that they apply towards an approved career goal or major. Continuing Education programs that support a new career direction, such as the Certified Financial Planner Program, rather than those courses that enhance or recertify a present career direction, such as the Insurance Adjuster Program of study, may be approved for VA educational benefits.

The preferred way to ask a question is to go to Forms and download the Veteran Services Query (VSQ) Form, type it out as other forms and mail or fax to Veteran Services. By completing a VSQ, you are taking less time away from our certification processing, which helps everyone get their money faster. We use the form to document the status and any corrective action that we did, as well as when we contacted you with the results. This completed form will be your permanent record at UCF where it can be referenced should future problems occur.

Please coordinate your enrollment with Continuing Education. During this process, contact us to determine if your desired program is already approved for VA Educational Benefits. If not, in coordination with Continuing Education, we will determine if your program can be approved and take action to do so. Since all programs require an annual approval, we normally do not automatically approve a Continuing Education Program until there is an eligible VA supported student enrolled. Please contact us for additional information.

Courses that can be approved are programs that will change or alter a career path and normally are longer courses (up to 11 months) to complete, on line courses (no stated instructor) where 50% of attendee take 6 or more months to complete, and other courses that enhance a direction of work, i.e. taking Risk Management Course along side a BA Nursing degree.

The VA benefit level is determined, for ALL Continuing Education courses, on the number of class hours per week for the length of the course. ALL short length courses will not generate enough VA benefits to cover tuition. If the course is considered to be a high technology course in the following subject areas of study,

• Biotechnology
• Life Science Technologies
• Opto-Technologies
• Computers & Telecommunications
• Electronics
• Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
• Material Design
• Aerospace
• Weapons
• Nuclear Technology

The course may be eligible for Accelerated Pay and VA benefits will pay for 60% of the tuition. This is especially useful when there are only one or two classes in a three day period.

Please contact a Continuing Education Representative at 407-515-6464 for all questions concerning Continuing Education courses. Contact Veteran Services for further guidance.