GI Bill overseas MHA calculator
What the Post-9/11 GI Bill pays for housing at a school outside the United States, and the two rules that cut it.
| Base rate used | $0 |
| Rate of pursuit | 0% |
| Benefit tier | 100% |
| Kicker, prorated | $0 |
| Monthly cash to you | $0 |
| Days in term | 0 |
| Term total, approx. | $0 |
| Entitlement used this term | 0 months |
The two rules that cut it
Exclusively online pays half. The foreign flat rate applies only if at least one course in the term is a section the registrar codes as resident instruction. Every course online, even at a foreign school, drops you to the distance-learning rate, roughly half the national average. A course sold as "hybrid" protects nothing unless it is coded in-person. Ask the School Certifying Official how the section will be certified to VA, in writing, before you register.
Rate of pursuit scales it. Your credits divided by the school's full-time load, rounded to the nearest tenth. Twelve of twelve is 100 percent. Nine of twelve is 80 percent. At 50 percent or below, no housing allowance at all.
Three timing rules
- Not payable on active duty. Terminal leave is active duty. Retire on 31 October and there is no MHA for September or October even if classes started.
- Starts when the SCO certifies enrollment, not when you register. Chase it.
- Breaks over seven days are unpaid. A four-week gap between semesters is a four-week gap in pay. Summer terms keep it flowing.
The Military Retirement Overseas Budget Planner is an Excel workbook that runs retired pay, VA compensation, GI Bill, debts and local living costs at three VA ratings side by side, with a 36-month projection where debts fall off on schedule, the TRICARE Overseas estimator, and a loan-payoff calculator. No macros. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
Get the workbook, $19Prefer the reasoning over the spreadsheet? The Retire to Thailand on TRICARE and the GI Bill field guide is 17 pages for $17: the money stack, the on-campus rule, TRICARE for retirees, visa tracks, and the phase-by-phase checklist.
Rates: AY 2026-27 foreign-school MHA flat rate and distance-learning rate from va.gov, which reset every 1 August. The term total prorates partial months at one-thirtieth per day, which is how VA pays; treat it as an estimate.