How to Read Your VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE): 5 Sections, All 11 Entitlement Codes & Restoration

Your VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE) is the document that tells a lender whether you can buy a home with a VA loan and no down payment. Most Kentucky veterans have one in an email somewhere, but very few have had it explained. Below I walk through a sample COE the way I do at my desk: the five sections that decide your eligibility, every one of the eleven entitlement codes, and the three restoration notes you may see if you have used the benefit before. The video draws it out on the whiteboard; the article has the full tables.

What a VA Certificate of Eligibility Is

The COE is issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It proves to the lender that your military service meets the requirements for a VA-guaranteed home loan, and it spells out four things the lender has to know before writing the loan: your entitlement amount, your funding fee exemption status, any prior VA loans still charged against you, and any special conditions.

You can request the certificate yourself through your VA.gov account or by mailing VA Form 26-1880. Most of my borrowers let me pull it: once you apply, I can retrieve the COE from the VA’s lender portal in a few minutes using your Social Security number, date of birth, and your authorization.

How to Read the COE: the Five Sections That Matter

1. Entitlement Code: the era of service that qualified you
2. Funding Fee: whether you pay it, and at what rate
3. Prior Loans Charged to Entitlement: VA loans still using your benefit
4. Entitlement Amount: how much guaranty is available now
5. Conditions: special notes such as a subsequent-use funding fee

To make this concrete, the video uses a fictitious repeat-use veteran, “John,” whose COE shows entitlement code 10, one active prior VA loan, $0 of basic entitlement, and a subsequent-use funding fee condition. His certificate is the harder one to read, which is exactly why it is the better teaching example.

1. Entitlement Code: All 11 Codes and What They Require

The entitlement code is a two-digit number that identifies the period of service, or the category, that makes you eligible. Each era has its own minimum active-duty requirement. Here is the full list:

Code	Era or category	Service dates	Minimum active duty
01	World War II	Sept 16, 1940 to July 25, 1947	90 continuous days
02	Korean War	June 27, 1950 to Jan 31, 1955	90 continuous days
03	Post-Korean War	Feb 1, 1955 to Aug 4, 1964	181 continuous days
04	Vietnam War	Aug 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975	90 continuous days
05	Entitlement Restored	Not era-specific	Prior VA loan paid off and property sold, or the one-time exception used
06	Unremarried Surviving Spouse	Not era-specific	No service requirement (spouse died from a service-connected cause)
07	Spouse of POW/MIA	Not era-specific	Service member was POW or MIA for more than 90 days
08	Post-WWII Peacetime	July 26, 1947 to June 26, 1950	181 continuous days
09	Post-Vietnam	May 8, 1975 to Sept 7, 1980 (enlisted) or Oct 16, 1981 (officer); period ends Aug 1, 1990	181 continuous days, or 24 continuous months
10	Persian Gulf War	Aug 2, 1990 to present	90 continuous days, or 24 continuous months
11	Selected Reserves / National Guard	Not era-specific	6 years in the Selected Reserves, or 90 days of active duty under Title 10

Two things to know. First, in any era, service shorter than the minimum still qualifies if you were discharged for a service-connected disability. Second, the code does not change your rate or your loan amount; it only tells the lender which rulebook to check your service against. Most of the veterans I work with in Kentucky are code 10, which means they served on or after August 2, 1990 and either completed 24 continuous months or served 90 continuous days during wartime.

2. Funding Fee: Exempt or Non Exempt

The VA funding fee is a one-time charge, paid at closing, that keeps the program running so it can offer no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance. Your COE will say either Exempt or Non Exempt. The fee depends on three things: the loan type (purchase, construction, or refinance), whether this is your first or a subsequent use, and your down payment. For a purchase loan:

Down payment	First use	Subsequent use
Less than 5%	2.15%	3.30%
5% to 9.99%	1.50%	1.50%
10% or more	1.25%	1.25%

On a $250,000 first-use loan with nothing down, the fee is $5,375. Almost every buyer finances it into the loan rather than paying cash at closing. If you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, even a 10% rating, your COE will say Exempt and the fee is waived entirely. Surviving spouses receiving DIC and Purple Heart recipients on active duty are also exempt. If your rating was pending at closing and later approved with an effective date before your closing date, you may be due a refund; the VA’s funding fee page has the current tables.

3. Prior Loans Charged to Entitlement

The table in the middle of the certificate lists every VA loan you have had, the loan amount, the date, how much entitlement each one used (the “entitlement charged”), and its status. If the table is empty, you have never used the benefit and you have full entitlement.

On John’s sample COE the table shows a $300,000 VA loan from July 12, 2016 that charged $75,000 of entitlement (the VA guaranteed 25% of that loan). The status reads Active, so that $75,000 is still tied up. To know what you have left for a second purchase, you subtract the charged amount from your total available entitlement. That math is in the next section.

4. Entitlement Amount: Why “$0 Basic Entitlement” Is Not the End

Near the middle of the form are two bold lines. On a first-time COE they read “basic entitlement is $36,000” and “$0 charged.” On John’s they read:

THIS VETERAN’S BASIC ENTITLEMENT IS $0*
TOTAL ENTITLEMENT CHARGED TO PREVIOUS VA LOANS IS $75,000*

The $36,000 basic entitlement was used up on his first loan, so it shows $0. That does not mean he cannot buy again. The VA adds bonus entitlement on top of the basic amount: for a veteran with partial entitlement, the maximum guaranty is 25% of the county’s conforming loan limit, minus what is already charged. Using an $806,500 county limit as an example, 25% is $201,625; subtract the $75,000 charged and John has $126,625 of entitlement left. Since lenders lend four times the guaranty with nothing down, that supports a zero-down purchase up to roughly $506,500. Above that, he would put down 25% of the difference, which is still far less than a conventional loan asks for.

A veteran with full entitlement (nothing charged, or everything restored) has had no VA loan limit at all since 2020. In that case the lender lends whatever your income, credit, and residual income support, with no down payment.

5. Conditions

The Conditions section is where the VA spells out anything specific to your file. The most common line is the funding fee status itself. On John’s COE there is a second note: subsequent use funding fee. That tells the lender this is not his first VA loan, so with less than 5% down his fee is 3.3% instead of 2.15%. Veterans who are exempt because of a service-connected disability do not pay the subsequent-use fee either. Read every line of this section before you make an offer, because it changes your closing costs.

Restoration of Entitlement: Code 05, Exempt, and the One-Time Exception

If you have used the benefit before, your COE may carry restoration notes. The video’s second sample, “Jane,” shows all three:

Basic restoration: entitlement code 05

Code 05, Entitlement Restored, means you used your VA loan, paid it in full, sold the property, and asked the VA to restore your entitlement. Once restored, you can use the full benefit again with no down payment. Both conditions matter: the loan has to be paid off and the home sold.

Funding fee exemption

Jane’s COE says Exempt, so she pays no funding fee on the new loan, first use or subsequent. Exemption applies to veterans receiving VA compensation, retirement, or active-duty pay for a service-connected disability, and to surviving spouses of veterans who died in service or from a service-connected disability.

Special one-time restoration

Normally you must sell the home to get entitlement back. The one-time restoration is the VA’s single exception: you paid the loan off but kept the property, and the VA restored your entitlement anyway so you could buy another home. The VA grants this once per veteran. After that, any future restoration requires you to dispose of every property bought with a VA loan and prove it to the VA before code 05 restoration is available again.

What Happens After the COE Checks Out

A COE has no expiration date, but I pull a fresh one at application because entitlement and exemption status can change. Once the certificate shows a valid code and enough entitlement for the purchase, the VA side of your eligibility is done. The rest is normal underwriting: credit history, income and debt-to-income ratio, the VA residual income test, and a VA appraisal. See Your Guide to Kentucky VA Loans for the credit and income guidelines, VA loans with collections or a repossession if your credit has some bruises, and the pre-approval checklist for the documents I will ask for alongside the COE.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my VA Certificate of Eligibility?

Ask your VA lender; most COEs can be pulled from the VA portal in minutes with your Social Security number, date of birth, and authorization. You can also request it through VA.gov or by mailing VA Form 26-1880.

What does entitlement code 10 mean?

Code 10 is the Persian Gulf War era, August 2, 1990 to the present. It requires 90 continuous days of active duty or 24 continuous months, with an exception for discharge due to a service-connected disability.

My COE says basic entitlement is $0. Can I still get a VA loan?

Usually yes. $0 basic entitlement means the $36,000 was used on a prior loan, but bonus entitlement of 25% of the county loan limit minus the amount charged may still support a zero-down purchase, subject to lender approval.

What is a subsequent use funding fee?

It is the higher funding fee charged on a second or later VA loan: 3.3% with less than 5% down instead of the 2.15% first-use rate. Veterans exempt for a service-connected disability do not pay it.

How do I restore my VA entitlement?

Pay the prior VA loan in full and sell the property, then request restoration from the VA (your COE will then show code 05). If you paid the loan off but kept the home, you may use the one-time restoration, which the VA grants only once.

Joel Lobb, EVO Mortgage, NMLS #57916, Company NMLS #1738461. Equal Housing Lender. 911 Barret Ave, Louisville, KY 40204. Kentucky mortgage loans only. This article and video are for educational purposes only and are not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. The Certificates of Eligibility shown in the video are fictitious samples for illustration; “John A. Doe” and “Jane B. Doe” are not real people. VA funding fee percentages are VA rates as of September 2026 and are subject to change; the $806,500 county loan limit is an illustrative figure and your county’s limit may differ. Entitlement, exemption status, and loan limits are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the VA or any government agency. All loans are subject to credit approval, income and property verification, appraisal, underwriting approval, and VA program guidelines. Verify licensing at www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org.