Do Guard and Reserve Members Qualify for a VA Loan? What Most Lenders Will Not Tell You
By Joe Nelson — Retired Air Force, Nelson Home Group Team Leader and Mortgage Loan Originator
Yes. Guard and Reserve members qualify for a VA loan, and a lot of you qualify right now without knowing it. There are three separate paths to eligibility: six creditable years in the Selected Reserve, 90 cumulative days of federal active duty under Title 10 orders, or 90 cumulative days of full-time Guard duty under Title 32 orders with at least 30 of those consecutive. Most lenders only know the first one. We see this play out in Kansas City all the time. A drilling Guardsman walks in, gets told to come back in six years, and never realizes the COVID activation or the border deployment already punched their ticket years ago.
What is the basic rule for Guard and Reserve VA loan eligibility?
The Department of Veterans Affairs lays out three qualifying paths for Guard and Reserve members. You only have to hit one of them.
Path 1: Six creditable years in the Selected Reserve. This is the catch-all most people know. Six years of honorable service in the Selected Reserve or National Guard, and you qualify. The service has to be creditable, which means you earned the points each year. Calendar time alone is not enough. You also have to be discharged honorably, placed on the retired list, or still serving in good standing.
Path 2: 90 cumulative days of Title 10 active duty. If you were activated under federal orders for at least 90 days, that activation by itself qualifies you. Deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the southern border, any federal mission counts. Initial training does not count. Annual training does not count. We are talking about real federal active duty orders.
Path 3: 90 cumulative days of Title 32 service, with at least 30 consecutive. This is the path most Guard members do not even know exists. It came out of the Veteran Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, which expanded VA loan eligibility to include qualifying Title 32 activations. Before 2020, only Title 10 federal orders counted. After 2020, Title 32 state-led federal missions count too. The change is also retroactive, which means activations from years ago can qualify you today.
Most lenders never updated their playbook. They still tell Guard members to come back in six years. That is malpractice on the lending side, and it is the single biggest reason qualified Guard buyers in this market are still renting.
Free resource: We put together a VA Home Buying Guide for Kansas City that walks you through eligibility, the funding fee math, and the moves your lender probably will not bring up on their own. Get it sent to you here.
What counts as Title 10 active duty for a Guard or Reserve member?
Title 10 is the federal active duty path. When your orders are signed under Title 10, you are activated by the federal government for a federal mission. Combat deployments, federal disaster response, mobilization for a named operation. These are the orders that produce a DD-214 when you come off them.
Examples that count in our area:
Members of the 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman flying A-10 missions in support of OIR. Title 10. Members of the 1-135th Assault Helicopter Battalion deployed to the Middle East. Title 10. Members of the 131st Bomb Wing augmenting active duty B-2 operations on a federal mission. Title 10. Reservists called up for Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Maria, or the southern border. Title 10. If your orders said you were federalized for a federal purpose, you were on Title 10.
If you have a DD-214 from any of those activations and you hit at least 90 cumulative days, you already qualify. You do not need to wait six years. You qualify today.
One important note: the 90 days have to be cumulative active duty under federal orders, not training time. Basic and AIT do not count on their own once you have separated. If you are currently still drilling and have been activated under Title 10 for 90 days at any point in your career, you qualify right now while you are still serving.
What changed in 2020 for Title 32, and why does it matter for KC Guard members?
The 2020 Veteran Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act was the biggest expansion of VA loan eligibility for Guard members in a generation. It added a third qualifying path for Title 32 activations that did not exist before.
Here is the difference. Title 10 orders are federal, signed by the President or the Secretary of Defense. Title 32 orders are state-led but federally funded for a federal purpose, signed by your state Governor at the request of the federal government. Before 2020, only Title 10 counted toward VA loan eligibility. After 2020, Title 32 counts too, as long as you served 90 cumulative days with at least 30 consecutive.
The National Guard Association of the United States estimated that as many as 50,000 Guard members mobilized for COVID may have gained immediate VA loan eligibility under this rule.
Why this matters in Kansas City: a huge number of Missouri and Kansas Guard members served Title 32 orders during the COVID-19 pandemic running vaccination sites, supporting hospitals, and staffing testing operations. Many of those members are still drilling at Whiteman, at Rosecrans, and at armories across the metro right now. They have no idea this rule applies to them.
The expansion is also retroactive. Title 32 activations from years ago can qualify you today, including weather event responses, civil disturbance missions, and other federally directed state operations. If you pulled a federal mission under Title 32 at any point, pull your orders and check the dates.
What documents will your lender actually need?
This is where Guard and Reserve loans get complicated, and where most lenders drop the ball. The paperwork is different from straight active duty, and the wrong forms will stall your file for weeks.
For a Guard or Reserve member, the documents your lender needs to pull a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) usually look like this:
NGB Form 22 — Report of Separation and Record of Service from the Guard, one for each period of Guard service if you have separated.
NGB Form 23 — Retirement Points Statement showing your creditable years of service. This is the form most Guard members have never seen and have no idea where to find. It lives in your iPERMS file.
DD-214 — If you were activated under Title 10 or qualifying Title 32 orders and came off active duty status, you have a DD-214 for that period. That is the cleanest single document for proving the 90-day path.
Statement of Service — If you are still drilling, your unit personnel office writes this. Tell them you need it for a VA loan COE and they will know exactly what goes in it.
As both Realtors and a licensed mortgage originator, we see this from both sides of the deal. Most agents send Guard and Reserve buyers to a separate lender, cross their fingers, and hope the COE comes back clean. We run the COE in-house. We tell you exactly what your numbers look like before you go shopping, and we flag the documentation issues before they kill your closing timeline.
Do Guard and Reserve members pay the same VA funding fee as active duty?
Yes. Since 2011, Guard and Reserve members pay the exact same VA funding fee as active duty veterans. Same rates, same exemptions, same financing options. The old higher rate Guard members used to pay went away years ago and is not coming back.
For 2026, the funding fee on a purchase loan with zero down is 2.15 percent of the loan amount for first-time users and 3.30 percent for subsequent users. On a $300,000 Kansas City purchase, that is $6,450 on first use. You can roll it into the loan, which most Guard buyers should, or pay it at closing.
If you have any VA service-connected disability rating, the funding fee is waived. That applies to Guard and Reserve members the same as it applies to active duty veterans. Any rating from 10 percent to 100 percent, full exemption.
We covered the funding fee in more detail in this video on the hidden VA loan cost that is putting veterans upside down in 2026. Worth watching before you sign anything.
Frequently Asked Questions About Guard and Reserve VA Loans
Can I use a VA loan if I am still drilling and have never been deployed?
Yes, once you hit six creditable years of honorable service in the Selected Reserve or National Guard. You do not have to wait for a discharge. You can use the benefit while you are still serving in good standing. Your unit personnel office can produce the Statement of Service your lender needs to pull the Certificate of Eligibility.
Does basic training count toward the 90-day VA loan requirement?
For Guard and Reserve members who have separated, basic training and AIT alone do not count toward the 90-day requirement. You need active duty time under qualifying federal orders beyond initial entry training. For service members currently still serving, basic training does count toward the 90 days for purposes of remaining qualified while in service.
What is the difference between Title 10 and Title 32 orders?
Title 10 orders are federal active duty orders signed by the President or the Secretary of Defense for a federal mission. Title 32 orders are state-led missions that are federally funded for a federal purpose, signed by your state Governor at the request of the federal government. Both types now count toward VA loan eligibility, as long as you meet the 90 cumulative day requirement with at least 30 consecutive days for Title 32.
How long does it take to get my Certificate of Eligibility as a Guard or Reserve member?
Most Certificates of Eligibility come back within minutes through the VA electronic system if your service records are clean. Guard and Reserve files can take longer if the NGB forms are missing or your retirement points statement is incomplete. We have pulled COEs for KC Guard members in under an hour, and we have also chased paperwork for three weeks when iPERMS was a mess. The difference is having a lender who knows what to ask for and where to find it.
Can I use my drill pay to qualify for a VA loan?
Yes, but it is treated differently from civilian income. Most lenders require a two-year history of drill pay and count it on top of your civilian W-2 income. As a licensed mortgage originator, we run drill pay correctly against your debt-to-income ratio. Some shops over-count it and approve buyers who should not be approved. Other shops ignore it entirely and tank your real buying power. The right answer is in the middle, and we will show you the math.
Do I need an honorable discharge to use my VA loan benefit as a Guard or Reserve member?
Generally yes. The VA requires an honorable or general (under honorable conditions) discharge for most service members. If you are still serving, you need to be in good standing. There are limited exceptions for certain types of separation under qualifying conditions, including hardship discharges and discharges tied to a service-connected disability. If your discharge status is in question, request a determination from the VA before you start house shopping.
Ready to Talk?
If you are drilling at Whiteman, Rosecrans, an armory in the metro, or anywhere else in the KC area and you are not sure whether you already qualify for your VA loan, that is the first conversation to have. Bring your service record. We will help you figure out exactly where you stand, and if your records are short on something, we will tell you exactly what to ask your unit personnel office for. Call, email, or scroll down to the Contact form at the bottom of this page, whichever is easiest.
Call: 816.680.6624
Email: nelsonhomegroup@gmail.com
Web: https://nelsonhomegroupkc.com/
Guard and Reserve members buying in Kansas City — our full Veterans Serving Veterans in Kansas City page covers VA entitlement, funding fees, and how we handle PCS moves from contract to close.