There are so many details to remember about VA home loans---about any kind of home loan, really—that it’s easy for a VA loan applicant to forget and make a mistake like sending in originals of official documents when they really should be submitting copies instead.

Do you have a client applying for a VA home loan who submitted their original copy of their DD Form 214, the report of discharge each veteran gets when they retire or separate from the military?

The DD Form 214 is one of the most important documents a vet has—it’s needed for so many VA benefits that I won’t even bother to list them all here. Suffice it to say that the DD Form 214 is absolutely necessary for a VA mortgage—you can’t even be considered eligible for one with out the DD Form 214 if you’re retired or separated.

But what is a vet to do if they mistakenly send in the original to the VA in the early days of the VA loan process? VA requirements demand that form to get basic eligibility, and chances are a vet might not need the DD214 again right away during the VA loan process…but if a veteran is applying for other benefits including healthcare and GI Bill money at the same time they’re going for the VA home loan, they’re in a bit of a bind.

The first thing the borrower should do is to check to see if they have any other copies of the DD Form 214. Since none of the VA programs require that original DD214, the copy can be reproduced again and again. No problem there. But if the vet can’t locate any other copies, they need to contact the National Archives in St. Louis to get a replacement copy as quickly as possible. Not having a DD 214 can hold up the wheels of progress for any VA benefit the veteran is applying for, but a free (in most cases) replacement is easy to get from the government. I’ll cover how in my next post.