Can I Use A VA Loan To Buy A Home Overseas?

The VA Loan can only be used within the United States or its territories. Unfortunately, it cannot be used to buy a home overseas.

For many service members stationed overseas, this means that they cannot use their VA Loan to purchase a home at their current duty station. You can still use your VA Loan while you are stationed or living overseas, but it must be on a home within the US. This gets tricky because there is also a requirement to purchase the home as your primary residence. This most often occurs when a service member is stationed overseas and their family remains in the United States. The service member uses their VA Loan to buy a home that their family lives in and that the service member uses as their home of record. This is especially common when the overseas tour is short and it wouldn’t make sense to uproot a family for such as short time.

You might be able to purchase a home in the US using your VA Loan while you are still on an overseas tour if you intend to move into it as your primary residence soon. For those who are relocating within a few months, this allows you to start your home search and have a house ready to move into when you get back.

For retirees that want to relocate overseas, the option to buy a house using their VA Loan in their new home is not available. In some places, it can be especially difficult to buy property if you are not a citizen of that country.

You can use your VA Loan to buy property in the United State’s territories. These include Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.