Background:

I’m a DV, honorably discharged, two Afghan deployments and rotations elsewhere, still in the process of transitioning from the military mindset to the civilian one. I figured traveling abroad would fill the need for adventure that I felt was missing from my civilian life, and it looked like attending a University abroad would be the way to do it.

I looked at various Universities across Europe and found one that offered the program I wanted (in English). It’s an accredited public University and there’s two other GI Bill students already at the school in other programs. I figured the process would be straightforward. Applied, got accepted, and the school submitted the paperwork to add this program of study to WEAMS. I applied for my visa and hopped on a flight over to Europe.

Troubles:

And here we hit the roadblock. Back in 2019, the Isakson and Roe Act was passed, and a side-effect of this was to require all programs to possess a US Bank account and a US Taxpayer ID number. This took effect in 2021 and takes full effect by 2023. Currently approved programs will not feel these effects until the program comes up for review (reviews occur every 2 years on a rolling basis).

Details can be found at: https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/docs/foreignProgramApprovalsLetter.pdf

Why it’s a problem:

Many Accredited Public Universities, such as the one I’m attending here in Europe, fall under their nation’s strict anti-fraud laws that prevent them from opening foreign bank accounts and obtaining foreign tax ID numbers. Perhaps some shadier for-profit universities have no troubles adapting to the regulations, but any school that’s worth your time is likely to be stuck. On my end, after months of discussion with the VA that ultimately went nowhere, I ended up having to pay my entire tuition and housing costs for my first semester out of pocket. Since this semester basically screwed me financially and I’m stuck with now-shitty credit and having to quit school. Not really a great transition.

Solutions (Not much):

I’ve reached out to various Senators, the Student Veterans of America (SVA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and other groups and organizations. In general, I’ve either gotten no reply or gotten a canned response that there’s nothing they can do.

So it’s pretty obvious that the system isn’t going to change and there’s not much that I can do, so I figured I’d pass this knowledge along before someone else fucks themselves over. I have knowledge of the GI Bill specifically, but talking to other Vets who are in similar situations currently, it also applies for VR&E programs abroad as well.