Can Guard or Reserve members get a VA home loan?
By Kyle Melvin · NMLS #1486450 · REV Mortgage ·
Short answer
Yes. A Guard or Reserve member qualifies with six years of creditable service in the Selected Reserve, with 90 days of active service under Title 10 orders, or — since the January 2021 expansion — with 90 cumulative days of full-time National Guard duty under Title 32, at least 30 of them consecutive. Any of those, with an honorable discharge or continued service, produces a Certificate of Eligibility with the same benefit an active-duty veteran gets. The documentation is different from active duty, and that is where most of the delays happen.
For years, Guard and Reserve members were told the VA loan required six years of service, and that was the whole answer. It is no longer the whole answer. Federal law added an active-service path for Reservists and, in 2020, a Title 32 path for Guard members that reaches people who served full-time on state or federal missions without a Title 10 mobilization. If you were told you do not qualify, the answer may have changed.
The three paths to eligibility
| Path | Requirement | Who it reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Six-year rule | Six years of creditable service in the Selected Reserve or National Guard, with honorable discharge, retirement, or continued service | Traditional drilling members |
| Title 10 active service | 90 days of active service under Title 10 orders (federal mobilization, deployment), with other-than-dishonorable discharge from that period | Mobilized Reservists and Guard members |
| Title 32 full-time Guard duty (since January 5, 2021) | 90 cumulative days of full-time National Guard duty under specified Title 32 sections, at least 30 of them consecutive | Guard members on state-federal missions — border, disaster response, COVID — who were never on Title 10 |
The 2020 change is the one people miss. Under section 2101 of the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020 (signed January 5, 2021), Guard members who performed full-time duty under Title 32 — including the sections covering training and operational support — qualify once they reach 90 cumulative days with at least 30 consecutive. Many Guard members who served extended state-active-duty missions in 2020 and 2021 crossed that line without realizing it created VA loan eligibility.
Discharge under other-than-dishonorable conditions is required for any completed period of service, and continued service satisfies the six-year path for a current member.
Proving it
Active-duty veterans hand over a DD-214. Guard and Reserve documentation is different, and it is the main reason Guard and Reserve COEs take longer.
- Current Selected Reserve or Guard member: a statement of service signed by the unit commander, adjutant or personnel officer, showing total creditable years, entry date, and any time lost.
- Discharged National Guard: NGB Form 22 (Report of Separation and Record of Service) and NGB Form 23 (Retirement Points Statement).
- Discharged Reserve: a retirement points statement and evidence of honorable service (DD-256 or DD-257 as applicable).
- Title 10 activation: the DD-214 issued for that period of active service.
- Title 32 full-time duty: orders and pay records or a statement of service establishing the days; VA's records may not reflect Title 32 service automatically, so expect to submit documentation rather than receive an automatic COE.
The Certificate of Eligibility page covers the three ways to request it. For Guard and Reserve members, the lender's WebLGY request is still the first move, but a manual submission with the documents above is more often necessary than it is for active duty.
Income: drill pay and civilian employment
Most Guard and Reserve borrowers qualify on civilian income, with drill pay as a secondary source. The VA Lenders Handbook, Chapter 4, allows drill pay when it has a history and is likely to continue — lenders generally look for two years of history on LES and W-2s. A Reservist currently mobilized on Title 10 orders is treated like an active-duty borrower for income, including BAH, with the same twelve-month continuity question the orders-as-income page describes: if the mobilization ends within a year, the lender needs to know what income replaces it.
Funding fee and entitlement
The funding fee for Reserve and Guard borrowers is now the same as for active-duty and veteran borrowers; the higher Reserve rate was eliminated in 2020. The exemptions — a compensable disability rating above all — apply identically. The funding fee page covers the schedule. Entitlement is the same benefit: full entitlement means no down payment and no VA loan limit, and the VA loan guidelines apply without modification.
Related VA IQ pages
Questions people also ask
- Do I need six years in the Guard to get a VA loan?
- Six years of creditable Selected Reserve service is one path. Ninety days of active service under Title 10, or 90 cumulative days of full-time Title 32 National Guard duty with at least 30 consecutive, are the others. Any one of the three qualifies.
- What documents prove Guard or Reserve eligibility?
- For current members, a statement of service showing total creditable years; for discharged Guard, NGB Form 22 and NGB Form 23; for discharged Reserve, a retirement points statement and evidence of honorable service; for Title 10 activations, the DD-214 for that period.
- Does drill pay count as income?
- Yes, when it has a history and is likely to continue. Lenders typically want a two-year history of drill pay documented on LES and W-2s and treat it as additional income alongside civilian employment.
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