Checking whether you qualify
Free TSA PreCheck for some veterans with a disability
Congress waived the TSA PreCheck application fee for certain veterans with a service-connected disability. Most of the people it was written for have never heard of it. Here is the real test, in VA's own words.
Read this before the checklist. This is not a VA publication and I am not VA.
I adapted it from VA's own published pages and from the law itself. VA and TSA marks belong to
those agencies. I am printing the eligibility test the way VA words it on its own page — because
the shorter version going around is written too narrow, and a veteran who reads the narrow
version can talk himself out of a benefit he has.
A fee waiver, not a free pass
Two agencies, one benefit.
- TSA waives the application fee. TSA runs PreCheck and decides who gets it.
- VA decides whether you meet the disability criteria and issues the letter that proves it.
The law is the VETS Safe Travel Act, Public Law 118-238, signed 4 January 2025,
written into the U.S. Code at 49 U.S.C. 44927(g). Write that down. If somebody at a
counter tells you no such thing exists, that citation is how you push back. You can read the
statute yourself at
uscode.house.gov.
One catch written into the law. The statute says TSA carries this out
"subject to the availability of appropriations." Plain English: Congress has to keep funding
it. If the waiver is ever unavailable in a given year, that is why — it is not a mark against you.
★ Congress made it. TSA and VA run it.
Who qualifies
Enrolled in VA health care — AND at least ONE of the three below.
First, both of these: you are a veteran, and you are enrolled in VA health care.
Enrolled means VA has you in its patient enrollment system, not just that you have a rating.
Then at least one of these must be true for you:
- One You have a service-connected disability that resulted in permanent blindness. No wheelchair or prosthetic requirement on this one. VA's own eligibility page lists blindness on its own.
- Two You have service-connected full or partial paralysis that requires the use of a VA-issued wheelchair or prosthetic limb.
- Three You have service-connected loss of a limb, or loss of the use of a limb, that requires the use of a VA-issued wheelchair or prosthetic limb.
Do not read this as an all-of-the-above list. You do not have to be blind and paralyzed
and an amputee. One of the three is the test.
★ One of three. Not all three.
The law is written wider than VA's letter
This is the part that costs people the benefit.
The statute covers more devices than the letter criteria do. 49 U.S.C. 44927(g) covers a
veteran who requires "a wheelchair, prosthetic limb, or other assistive device to aid with
mobility." VA's letter process is currently written around a VA-issued wheelchair or
prosthetic limb. If you use a walker, crutches, a cane or another mobility aid and no
waiver letter shows up in your VA.gov account, ask VA. Do not decide on your own that
you are out.
If you are blind, ask — even if you use no wheelchair or prosthesis. VA's two pages on
this benefit do not say the same thing. VA's eligibility page lists permanent blindness by
itself, with no device attached. VA's news article attaches the device requirement to all
three conditions. When VA's own pages disagree, the answer is to ask VA, not to assume the
narrower one is right.
A 100% rating by itself does not qualify you for this particular waiver. The test is
the three conditions above. If that is not you, you can still get PreCheck the ordinary way
by applying through TSA and paying the fee — and if one of the three does describe you but
your record does not show it, that is a rating and enrollment question to take to VA.
★ When in doubt, ask. Do not self-screen out.
Getting your letter from VA
- Sign in to your VA.gov account.
- Go to Benefit letters and documents.
- Select TSA PreCheck Application Fee Waiver Letter, then select Download TSA PreCheck Application Fee Waiver (PDF).
- Save it and keep a copy. That PDF is your proof.
VA's walkthrough is at
va.gov/resources/how-you-can-get-tsa-precheck-for-free-as-a-veteran-with-a-disability.
VA's own announcement of the letter is at
news.va.gov.
★ Four steps, all inside VA.gov.
No letter in your account
A missing letter is not a denial.
- The letter only generates for veterans VA has already flagged as meeting the criteria. If VA's record of your disability or your health care enrollment is not current, no letter appears.
- Confirm you are actually enrolled in VA health care, not only rated.
- Then ask VA directly and tell them which of the three conditions applies to you.
I am not printing a phone number here that I could not read off a live VA page today. Get
current VA numbers straight from VA at
va.gov/resources/helpful-va-phone-numbers.
A number that has changed is worse than no number at all.
★ Silence is not a no. Ask.
The letter is not the application
This is where people stop and stall out.
- Getting the VA letter does not enroll you in PreCheck. Applying for TSA PreCheck is a separate process, run by TSA, with its own requirements. Start at tsa.gov and follow TSA's instructions for applicants using a fee waiver.
- What the waiver is worth: it covers TSA's standard PreCheck application fee. I am not printing a dollar amount I could not confirm today — get the current fee from tsa.gov so you know what you saved and can tell if you were charged anyway.
- Renewal: I could not confirm how long membership lasts or whether the waiver applies again when you renew. Ask TSA before you renew, and ask before you pay anything.
- This one is yours alone. The statute covers the veteran. It does not name spouses, dependents or survivors — plan on them paying the normal fee unless TSA tells you otherwise.
- Still serving? There is a separate no-cost path for currently serving uniformed service members and Department of Defense civilians, with its own rules. I could not verify its details today, so check with your unit and at tsa.gov before you pay a fee you may not owe.
★ Letter first. Then TSA. Do not stop halfway.