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Dear School Certifying Official,
At the end of January 2026, Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance (Chapter 35) beneficiaries will be required to verify their enrollment each month to receive their benefit payments. Please note that a beneficiary must verify their enrollment for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to begin processing the monthly benefit. Once verified, payment processing can take five to seven calendar days.
VA has automatically verified all Chapter 35 enrollments for December 2025. December payments are expected to be processed by the end of the first week of January. Please note that certain banking institutions may take longer to make funds available to beneficiaries.
To verify enrollment, the following options are available:
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Text: To verify via text, beneficiaries can opt-in when they begin using their benefits to receive a monthly text message from VA to confirm their enrollment. This is the fastest way for students to verify their enrollment and receive their payments.
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Email: If beneficiaries choose not to opt into text verification, they will receive monthly enrollment verification messages by email.
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Online: Chapter 35 beneficiaries can verify their enrollment through our online tool.
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Ask VA: Beneficiaries can verify through Ask VA by sending a message with their enrollment dates via Ask VA. This is a manual process. Therefore, payment will be five to seven days once the message is formally reviewed, not from when the beneficiary submits the Ask VA message.
If a beneficiary had previously opted out and would like to change their enrollment verification method to text or email, they can call the Education Call Center (ECC) at 888-442-4551, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday.
To make sure students receive updates on enrollment verification requirements, and to have access to text and email verification methods, VA recommends that beneficiaries review and, if needed, update their personal contact information, including email address, mailing address, and mobile phone number. Beneficiaries can update their contact information in their VA.gov profile, through Ask VA, or by calling the ECC.
We encourage you to submit enrollment certifications as soon as possible. Enrollment Manager allows certifications up to 180 days before the term begins for Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) enrollment certifications and up to 120 days for non-33 (Montgomery GI Bill Active Duty [Chapter 30], Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve [Chapter 1606], or Chapter 35).
Respectfully,
VA Education Service
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