VA Loan Surviving Spouse Requirements & Rules (2026)

An eligible surviving spouse can get a VA home loan in their own name — with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance, and no funding fee if you're receiving DIC. The benefit doesn't end when the veteran passes. If your spouse died in service or from a service-connected disability and you haven't remarried (with one age-based exception), you can use the VA loan yourself. Here are the VA loan surviving spouse requirements in full: who qualifies, the remarriage rule that trips people up, and the form that gets you a Certificate of Eligibility.

VA loan surviving spouse requirements: who qualifies

The VA grants a Certificate of Eligibility to a surviving spouse when at least one of these is true:

You only need to fall into one of these. The simplest path is the first: an unmarried surviving spouse of a veteran whose death was in service or service-connected. Past the category test, the requirements are the ones every VA borrower faces — a Certificate of Eligibility (VA Form 26-1817 if you receive DIC; the walkthrough is below) and a lender's ordinary credit and income review.

What the benefit is actually worth

A surviving-spouse VA loan carries the same headline advantages as any VA loan. Nearly 90% of VA-backed loans are made with no down payment, and there's no monthly private mortgage insurance. On top of that, if you're receiving DIC, you're exempt from the VA funding fee — the one cost that's specific to your status.

That fee is what most borrowers finance into their loan, and it isn't small.

On a $300,000 first-use purchase, skipping the 2.15% funding fee keeps about $6,450 out of your loan balance — and because the fee is normally financed, it also spares you the interest that would accrue on that amount over the life of a 30-year loan. Want to see the math on other loan sizes and use scenarios? Our VA funding fee guide breaks the full 2026 schedule down, and the VA funding fee calculator applies the DIC exemption to your own purchase price.

See what you qualify for as a surviving spouse

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How to request your Certificate of Eligibility

Like every VA loan, a surviving-spouse loan starts with a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) — the document proving to your lender that you qualify. Which form you file depends on whether you receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC):

• If you receive DIC: file VA Form 26-1817, Request for Determination of Loan Guaranty Eligibility — Unmarried Surviving Spouses, and include the veteran's DD214 (or other separation papers) if you have them.
• If you don't receive DIC: VA has you file Form 21P-534EZ (Application for DIC, Survivors Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits) and provide supporting documents — typically the marriage license and the veteran's death certificate, plus service records establishing the qualifying circumstances.

You don't have to be receiving DIC to be eligible for the loan itself, but DIC affects both the paperwork path and — per VA — the funding-fee exemption. In many cases your lender can request the COE for you electronically through VA's online system, which VA says can be faster than applying by mail. From there, the rest of the VA loan process looks the same as it does for any borrower.

Bottom line

If your spouse died in service or from a service-connected disability and you haven't remarried — or you remarried on or after 57 and on or after December 16, 2003 — the VA home loan benefit is yours to use. That means no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance — and if you're receiving DIC, no funding fee either. Start by requesting your Certificate of Eligibility with the right form for your situation, then confirm the funding-fee exemption is noted before you close.

Take the 2-minute eligibility check to see your options as a surviving spouse, or read our Certificate of Eligibility guide for the full COE walkthrough.