If you are a person who has served in the United States Military on active duty for more than 180 days consecutively, then you are a qualified Veteran of the Armed Forces. As a veteran, there are many programs and services which you can apply for. One of them that is available for veterans is the VA Home loan program.
You can use Veterans Administration home loan benefits with any lender, any mortgage lender who participates in the VA Home loan program. When applying for a VA home loan, you will have to get a certificate of eligibility from the Veterans Administration that certifies you are eligible to participate in the loan program. To request an eligibility certificate, you can complete VA form 26-1880, which is a certificate of eligibility request form.
Once you have completed Form 26-1880, you submit the completed form along with proof of your military service to the Winston Salem VA eligibility Center. Most of the time a copy of your DD 214 discharge certificate will suffice as proof of service, but occasionally the VA will require other forms of military service proof. Sometimes the VA can establish your Veterans eligibility without proof of service, but that can and often will delay your certificate for several weeks. Its best to at least include your DD 214 to speed processing of your application.
Sometimes your lender can get a Eligibility Certificate for you. This is called a ACE or automated form of Certificate of Eligibility. As the Veterans administration gets more of its records database online, this is possible on an increasing basis. It all depends on if the Veterans Administration has enough of the records available electronically to qualify your individual case. If there is enough material online digitally to qualify you, then you can be issued a Certificate of Eligibility in a matter of seconds. It can only help to try, and if you are able to qualify using the ACE route then you will save a lot of time.
If you have successfully discharged and paid off a VA home loan in the past, and no longer own the property you can often qualify for a VA assisted loan again. Under these conditions you can have your eligibility restored to use again. If you have paid off your home loan, and still own the property, you can have your eligibility restored at times, but on a “one time only†basis, because you still own the property.
