General Information for All VA Chapter Benefits
How to Apply
If you have never applied for your VA Educational Benefits, apply online through the Department of Veteran Affairs:
VONAPP or contact the Department of Veteran Affairs at 1-888-442-4551. Visit https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/ for more information.
If have applied for your benefits through Veteran Affairs and are ready to submit your Certificate of Eligibility letter to UCSB - click here.
Important: Don't forget to submit a new UCSB Veterans Benefits Request Form for each new quarter that you are attending and wish to use your VA benefits.
Download: The UCSB Military Benefits Estimate Example academic year for new students.
To see your specific cohort tuition fee for each academic year, please visit the UCSB Office of the Registrar's website for detailed fee and tuition information.
How VA Payments Work (please read carefully):
Your benefits for the quarter will not be processed or paid by the VA until you
submit a Veterans Benefits Request Form (VBRF) with UCSB.
For the following benefit types:
- Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill
- Chapter 31 VRE,
UCSB will receive a direct payment from the VA towards your tuition & fees only. Housing benefits are paid directly to the student no matter if you are living in UCSB Housing, the VA will never pay your housing directly to the school. If you are in UCSB Housing you must make payment arrangements with the BARC Billing Office because you are responsible to pay that balance in a timely manner.
The VA monthly housing allowance stipend payments are always paid to students in arrears, meaning not until the end of each month, the VA sends you basically like a paycheck for the days that you attended school in that month. So you will not receive anything until the end of September at the earliest and it will be a smaller payment for only a few days because school doesn't start until later in the month. Your first full monthly payment won't be until the end of October. Keep in mind that school breaks when you are not attending will always be deducted from the full monthly amount (you will receive partial payments when a quarter is starting or ending).
Tuition & Fees will be paid to UCSB directly from the VA, although those payments are always delayed due to a process called "dual certification" in which the VA requires schools to start out reporting $0 for the tuition payment amount, and then later request the appropriate amount of fees (after the add/drop period). Because we know this fee payment is delayed, we share a list with the BARC Billing Office of the expected tuition/fees payments from the VA (Chapter 33 and Chapter 31 only). BARC will reach out to students via email if they have a remaining balance (from housing), so please be on the lookout for this communication. BARC can set you up with a special type of payment plan for the housing balance due to delayed monthly payments you receive directly from the VA.
For the following benefit types:
- Chapter 35 Dependents Educational Assistance
- Montgomery GI Bill Select Reserve Chapter 1601
- Montgomery GI Bill Chapter 30
Please know that payments will be sent directly to you from the VA via direct deposit. No payments are made directly to UCSB.
If you have questions about VA direct deposit or specific questions about your monthly VA Monthly Housing Allowance payment amount, please call the GI Bill hotline at 888-442-4551. The university does not have access to this information for individual students.
Please pay close attention to quarterly fee payment deadlines. These usually happen on the 15th of the month prior to the start of the next quarter.