Marrying a veteran can make you eligible for a range of VA benefits for spouses of veterans, including TRICARE or CHAMPVA health coverage, co-borrowing on a VA home loan, transferred GI Bill education benefits, and, if your spouse dies, monthly survivor payments and burial in a national cemetery. What you actually qualify for depends on whether your spouse is on active duty, retired, disabled, or deceased, along with their discharge status and length of service.
When the VA Considers You a Spouse
Your marriage counts if it was valid under the law of the place where you or your spouse lived at the time of the marriage or when you became eligible for benefits.1U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Important Information on Marriage Same-sex marriages are recognized regardless of where you live now or lived before, and common-law marriages count if the veteran’s state treats them as valid. Benefits generally require that the veteran was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.2eCFR. 38 CFR 3.12 – Benefit Eligibility Based on Character of Discharge A veteran with an other-than-honorable discharge can request a character of discharge review, which sometimes opens the door to benefits.
Health Coverage
TRICARE
TRICARE is the military health program, and it covers spouses of active-duty service members and military retirees. If your spouse is on active duty, you are typically enrolled automatically once you are registered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). Retiree spouses choose among several TRICARE plans depending on where they live.
Once both you and the retiree reach Medicare eligibility, TRICARE for Life can act as secondary coverage that picks up much of what Medicare does not. You have to stay enrolled in both Medicare Part A and Part B to keep it; dropping Part B ends TRICARE entirely.3TRICARE. Beneficiaries Eligible for TRICARE and Medicare
CHAMPVA
If your veteran spouse has a permanent and total service-connected disability rating but did not retire from the military, TRICARE is usually off the table. CHAMPVA fills that gap, covering doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, and mental health care.4U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. CHAMPVA Guidebook CHAMPVA eligibility ends the day a divorce is finalized.
VA Home Loans
The VA Home Loan Guaranty program lets eligible veterans buy a home with no down payment and no private mortgage insurance. As the spouse of a living veteran, you cannot use a VA loan on your own, but you can be a co-borrower, and your credit and income count toward the loan amount the lender approves.
The veteran’s service must meet a minimum length. For Gulf War-era veterans (August 2, 1990 to present), that generally means 24 continuous months of active duty, or at least 90 days if called up for a specific period.5Veterans Affairs. Eligibility for VA Home Loan Programs Earlier eras have different thresholds. Veterans with service-connected disabilities are exempt from the VA funding fee, and that exemption applies to the loan even when a spouse co-borrows.
Education Benefits
Post-9/11 GI Bill Transfer
A veteran can transfer unused Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to a spouse, but only with advance planning while still in service. The service member must have completed at least six years of service and agree to serve four more at the time the transfer is approved.6Veterans Affairs. Transfer Your Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits Purple Heart recipients are exempt from the service requirement but still have to request the transfer while on active duty. The Defense Department, not the VA, approves the request.
Once approved, you can start using the benefits right away. If the veteran separated on or after January 1, 2013, there is no deadline for you to use them. If separation came earlier, you have 15 years from that separation date. Benefits pay tuition, a monthly housing allowance, and a books-and-supplies stipend.
Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance
DEA (Chapter 35) is a separate program that does not require a transfer. If the veteran has been rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected condition, you are independently eligible for up to 36 months of education benefits covering degree programs, certificates, apprenticeships, and on-the-job training.7MyArmyBenefits. Survivors and Dependents Education Assistance Program (DEA) DEA pays a monthly allowance rather than tuition directly. Spouses whose qualifying event happened on or after August 1, 2023 have no time limit; earlier qualifying events generally carry a 10-year window (20 years in some cases).
MyCAA and Federal Hiring
If your spouse is on active duty in pay grades E-1 to E-9, W-1 to W-3, or O-1 to O-3, you can apply for the My Career Advancement Account scholarship, worth up to $4,000 toward licenses, certifications, or associate degrees in portable career fields.8Military OneSource. Get Started With MyCAA Military spouses also get a noncompetitive hiring advantage for federal jobs, which lets agencies hire a qualified spouse without running a full competitive process. Eligibility extends to spouses of active-duty members, spouses of service members who died on active duty, and spouses of veterans with a 100% service-connected disability.9DoD Civilian Careers. Recruiting and Retaining Military Spouses Fact Sheet Starting in 2029, spouses of active-duty members will have to relocate with the service member to keep this authority.
If the Veteran Dies
Most survivor benefits require that you were married to the veteran for at least one year before their death or had a child together.10Veterans Benefits Administration. Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Fact Sheet If you were separated when the veteran died, you may still qualify as long as the separation was not your fault and you had not remarried.
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
DIC is a tax-free monthly payment when the veteran’s death was service-connected or the veteran died on active duty. The 2026 base rate is $1,699.36 per month, effective December 1, 2025.11Veterans Affairs. Current DIC Rates for Spouses and Dependents Additional amounts apply for children under 18 ($421 each per month), for cases where the veteran was rated totally disabled for at least eight consecutive years before death and you were married for that entire span ($360.85 extra), and as a two-year transitional benefit for surviving spouses with children under 18 ($359 per month).
Remarriage generally ends DIC, but if you remarry at age 57 or older and the remarriage occurred on or after December 16, 2003, you keep it.12Veterans Affairs. About VA DIC for Spouses, Dependents, and Parents
Survivors Pension
The Survivors Pension is a needs-based monthly payment for low-income surviving spouses of wartime veterans. The death does not have to be service-connected, but the veteran must have served during a recognized wartime period (World War II, Korea, Vietnam era, or the Gulf War from August 2, 1990 onward) and been discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.13Veterans Affairs. Survivors Pension FAQ
The 2026 maximum annual rate for a surviving spouse with no dependents is $11,699, rising with dependents or with Housebound or Aid and Attendance status (up to $18,697 with no dependents).14Veterans Affairs. Current Survivors Pension Benefit Rates The VA subtracts your countable annual income from the maximum to set your actual payment; unreimbursed medical and education costs can reduce that countable income. Your net worth (assets plus income, excluding home and car) has to be at or below $163,699 for the December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2026 period. Remarriage after the veteran’s death generally ends pension eligibility.
CHAMPVA, Fry Scholarship, and DEA
Surviving spouses who do not qualify for TRICARE can get CHAMPVA if the veteran died from a service-connected condition or was permanently and totally disabled from one at the time of death.15Department of Veterans Affairs. CHAMPVA Benefits Remarrying before 55 ends CHAMPVA; remarrying at 55 or older lets you keep it.
The Fry Scholarship provides Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to surviving spouses of service members who died in the line of duty on or after September 11, 2001. It covers up to 36 months of tuition (full in-state rate at public schools, or up to $29,920.95 per academic year at private schools for 2025–2026), a monthly housing allowance, and a books-and-supplies stipend.16MyArmyBenefits. Fry Scholarship – Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship Fry Scholarship eligibility survives remarriage. DEA is also available to surviving spouses if the veteran died from a service-connected condition or died in the line of duty. If you qualify for both Fry and DEA, you can use only one at a time.
Burial in a National Cemetery
You can be buried in a VA national cemetery at no cost as the spouse of an eligible veteran, even if the veteran is not buried there. The benefit includes the gravesite or cremation niche, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, and a government headstone or marker.17National Cemetery Administration. Eligibility – National Cemetery Administration A surviving spouse who remarries a non-veteran keeps eligibility based on the earlier marriage as long as the death occurred on or after January 1, 2000. If you are buried in a private cemetery, your name can be inscribed on the veteran’s existing marker rather than getting a separate one.18U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Headstones, Markers, Plaques and Urns
What Happens If You Divorce
Divorce ends most VA spouse benefits immediately. CHAMPVA stops the day the divorce is final. TRICARE ends too, unless you meet the 20/20/20 rule: the service member had at least 20 years of creditable service, the marriage lasted at least 20 years, and all 20 years of the marriage overlapped with those service years.19TRICARE. Former Spouses A narrower 20/20/15 version gives one year of transitional TRICARE. Remarrying ends TRICARE for former spouses, even if the new marriage later ends. Military retired pay can be divided as marital property under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act, capped at 50% of disposable retired pay.
How to Apply
You will generally need your marriage certificate, the veteran’s DD-214, and, for survivor claims, the veteran’s death certificate.20Department of Veterans Affairs. Evidence to Support VA Pension, DIC, or Accrued Benefits Claims The main forms:
- DIC and Survivors Pension use a single application, VA Form 21P-534EZ.21Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 21P-534EZ
- CHAMPVA uses VA Form 10-10d, with VA Form 10-7959C if you have other health insurance to declare.22Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 10-10d23Department of Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 10-7959C
- DEA and the Fry Scholarship use VA Form 22-5490.
Applications can be filed online at VA.gov, mailed to a VA regional office, or submitted in person. DIC and pension claims often take several months to process. File promptly: many benefits are paid retroactively to the date the VA receives your application, not the date it approves the claim.