Did you know?

Your VA benefits do not stop at the U.S. border

If you live, work, retire or travel overseas, you may still be eligible for many VA benefits. Some of them work differently abroad. This page tells you how.

VA's Foreign Medical Program page VA's page for veterans abroad
Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat at veteranscrisisline.net. TTY 711 then 988, or 1-800-799-4889. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect.
From overseas: 988 is a U.S. dialing code and may not connect from a foreign phone line. The chat at veteranscrisisline.net does not depend on a U.S. dial plan. Confirm the dialing method for the country you are in before you need it.
Why I rebuilt this page. The version of this handout that circulates in transition offices prints an old mailing address for the Foreign Medical Program. A claim mailed to a closed box is a claim that may never get paid. The current address, the filing deadline and the parts most handouts leave out are below. I am one retired Sergeant First Class in Junction City, Kansas. I bring the truth, simple and to the point.
What keeps paying

Benefits that continue when you live abroad

VA's own list for veterans living outside the United States.

Read this before you move to the Philippines. VA states that a Certificate of Eligibility for a VA-backed home loan is not available to veterans residing in the Philippines. The Certificate of Eligibility is the paper that proves to a lender you qualify. Every other benefit on this list still runs. If a VA loan is part of your plan, settle it before you relocate.
★ Most of it follows you. Check the ones that do not.
The big one

Foreign Medical Program — who it pays for

FMP is VA's health care benefit for care you get in a foreign country. Most handouts state it too narrowly and people stop reading.

FMP pays for medically necessary care in a foreign country if any one of these is true:

  1. The care is for your VA-rated service-connected disability — a condition VA has already decided is connected to your service.
  2. The care is for a condition associated with a service-connected disability that VA determines makes that disability worse. This path is left off most flyers. It is real money.
  3. You are in VR&E (Chapter 31) — and then FMP covers all the care you need during the program, not only service-connected care.
FMP is for foreign countries only. Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands are not foreign countries for this program. If you live there, FMP is the wrong door — use regular VA care and VA community care. Filing the wrong way costs you months.
VA's current FMP pages do not state a registration step. VA has historically asked veterans to register with FMP using VA Form 10-7959f-1. Confirm what is required today at va.gov/health-care/foreign-medical-program before you need care. Do not let an unanswered question about registration keep you from getting treatment.
★ Three doors in, not one.
Fix on this page

Filing an FMP claim — the current address

Current mailing address for FMP claims:
VHA Office of Integrated Veteran Care
ATTN: Foreign Medical Program
PO Box 200
Spring City, PA 19475, USA
The Denver, Colorado P.O. Box that older handouts print is obsolete. So is the old office name — Community Care was retired; the Office of Integrated Veteran Care administers FMP now. If you have an old flyer taped inside a binder, mark it.
Two-year deadline. VA's words: "You must file your claim within 2 years of the date you got the care." For care you were admitted for, it runs two years from the date of discharge. Miss it and the claim is gone — that is a total loss, not a delay.
  • File online. As of March 2026 VA moved FMP claims off paper. Start at va.gov/health-care/file-foreign-medical-program-claim. Online avoids international mail entirely.
  • Care received in Canada goes somewhere else — Veterans Affairs Canada, P.O. Box 6000, Matane, Quebec, Canada G4W 0E4, fax 613-991-0305. A Canadian claim sent to the U.S. box gets bounced.
  • Fax: 303-331-7803 · Email: hac.fmp@va.gov
  • Phone: VA's current FMP claim cover sheet prints 1-833-930-0816. VA also runs toll-free FMP lines inside specific countries — Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica and the U.S./Canada. Those country numbers are published on VA's FMP page. Use the one for the country you are standing in.
Do not send FMP medical bills to Janesville, Wisconsin. The Evidence Intake Center — Department of Veterans Affairs, Evidence Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444 — is for benefits claims and evidence only. Medical reimbursement goes to Spring City, or to Canada for care in Canada.
★ Right box. Inside two years.
People, not websites

Overseas Military Services Coordinators

VA staff whose job is veterans, service members and Families living abroad. They answer questions on benefits, claims and services.

  • Europe: omsceurope.vbaco@va.gov
  • Pacific and Asia: omscasia.vbaco@va.gov
  • MyVA411: 800-698-2411 — VA's main information line, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • International benefits line: +1-412-395-6272 — Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time
  • Ask VA — secure written questions at ask.va.gov
You can sit down with one. VA schedules virtual appointments with U.S.-based representatives through VERA, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern. In-person Coordinators are named at Iwakuni, Okinawa (Camp Foster and Kadena Air Base) and Yokosuka in Japan; Camp Humphreys in South Korea; Wiesbaden in Germany; and Vicenza in Italy. Details at benefits.va.gov/benefits/oms_Coordinators.asp.
Another in-person option. VA names the Federal Benefits Units at U.S. embassies and consulates as a full-service place to handle VA business abroad. If there is no Coordinator near you, ask the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate for its Federal Benefits Unit.
★ There is a human. Use them.
Philippines

The Manila clinic — and its two limits

The Manila VA Outpatient Clinic is the only VA facility located in a foreign country. Everywhere else, eligible care runs through FMP.

Two limits decide whether you can be seen.
  • You must have a VA-rated service-connected disability specific to the condition being treated. A rating for one condition does not open the door for a different one.
  • To enroll as a patient you must have a Philippines address and a local phone number.
If you are planning a move to the Philippines, settle these before you go, along with the home loan Certificate of Eligibility issue above. Arriving and being turned away is an expensive way to find out.
★ Know the limits before you book the flight.
Money and protection

Getting paid, getting school approved, getting help

  • International direct deposit: 918-781-7550 or DIRECTD.VBAMUS@VA.GOV. A payment VA cannot deliver is a payment that stops. If you move or change banks abroad, call them first.
  • School overseas: 918-781-5678. A foreign school must be VA-approved before GI Bill benefits will pay for it. Confirm approval before you enroll and before you pay tuition.
  • My HealtheVet: use va.gov/my-health. The old myhealth.va.gov address is being retired.
  • General VA contact: va.gov/contact-us.
Check for fraud alerts before you use a foreign provider. VA has suspended a group of medical providers in Panama tied to a criminal complaint over thousands of false FMP claims — double-billed, grossly overpriced, unnecessary or never performed. VA keeps a standing alert page at va.gov/health/foreign_medical_program_alerts.asp. Report suspected fraud to the VA Inspector General hotline, 1-800-488-8244.
You can have somebody represent you from overseas. An accredited Veterans Service Organization representative is free and can file and track your claim while you are abroad. An accredited attorney or claims agent may charge you only after VA's first decision on your claim, and VA's rules presume a fee of up to 20% of past-due benefits to be reasonable (38 CFR 14.636). Distance makes representation more valuable, not less. Nobody may charge you to file an initial claim.
★ Free help exists. Ask for it.