What's inside
The benefits it covers
- VA health care — how to apply and what it covers
- Disability compensation and your disability rating
- VA education and training benefits
- VA-backed home loans
- Mental health services
- Community care — getting care outside VA
- Caregiver benefits and support
- VA women's health services
- Burial and memorial benefits
- VA pension, life insurance, Veteran ID card and records
- Vet Center services, Whole Health, urgent care
- Aging and geriatric services, food and nutrition
- Career and employment, including Veteran Readiness and Employment
- Your eligibility, your checklist, and your emergency resources
★ One guide, most of the map.
The journey
Built around where you are in life
The kit is organized by life stage, not by VA office.
- Getting Out — leaving the service
- Starting Up — first steps as a veteran
- Taking Care of Yourself — health and mental health
- Building Your Career — education, training, work
- Putting Down Roots — home, Family, community
- Retiring
- Aging
It also carries ten Quick Start Guides — short, one-topic sheets you can hand to somebody:
Apply for VA Health Care · Get Started with Mental Health Services · Understanding
Community Care · Accessing Urgent Care · Getting Started with the Caregiver Support
Program · Getting Started with Vet Center Services · Get Started with Services for Aging
Veterans · Getting Started with Women Veterans Health Services · Getting Started with
Whole Health · Get Started with Food and Nutrition Services.
★ Find your stage. Start there.
Emergency
The page to find first
The kit has an emergency resources section. Learn it before you need it.
Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text
838255. Confidential chat at
veteranscrisisline.net. For TTY, call
711 then
988, or
1-800-799-4889. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. VA's own words: you don't
have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect.
Put that number in your phone now, and in the phone of somebody who would call on your behalf.
The other numbers on the kit's emergency page:
National Call Center for Homeless Veterans 877-424-3838 ·
Women Veterans Call Center 855-829-6636 ·
VA Caregiver Support Line 855-260-3274 ·
National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-SAFE (7233) ·
plus Military Sexual Trauma support through your VA facility's MST Coordinator.
★ Know it before you need it.
Why it matters
People miss benefits because nobody told them
- Most veterans do not lose benefits — they never learn the benefit exists
- The kit puts the commonly used benefits in one place, in plain language
- It is written for the Family too, not just the veteran
- Free, official, and straight from VA — no middleman, no fee, no percentage of your back pay
★ You can't claim what you never heard of.
How to get it
Three steps
- Go to va.gov/welcome-kit
- Download the free guide — there is a color version and a black-and-white version for cheaper printing
- Keep it. Print a copy for somebody who needs it
Heads up: VA does not mail you a physical kit from that page. You download it and print it
yourself. The black-and-white version is the one to print if you are paying for ink.
★ Two minutes to download.
Pass it on
Who else should have this
- A Soldier about to transition out
- A spouse who handles the paperwork in the house
- A caregiver looking after a veteran
- A surviving spouse or child who does not know what they are entitled to
- A veteran who separated years ago and never engaged with VA at all
★ Share it. It costs you nothing.