How To Order a Military Status Verification
This video explains how to place an order to verify active duty status to comply with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
The first step is registration. Remember, there is no subscription or recurring fee.
Select your company type or leave blank if you are an individual or pro-se litigant.
Here is where you enter the characters at the left.
Your results will be order will be sent from [email protected]. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block our emails. You will get a confirmation email immediately. If you don’t get it, check your spam folder or you won’t receive your military verifications.
Once you have registered you will be taken to this screen and then you can click “Search Names”.
Do you have the full social security number? In this example, we don’t have the full number.
Put in the person’s name (not your name).
The spelling of the last name is very important. The Defense Manpower Data Center, which processes all these requests, is unforgiving. Even one wrong letter in a last name will give you a bad response. This also means that double-last names, and hyphenated last names might require multiple orders to cover all bases.
For example, say your debtor’s name is Maria Suarez Cruz, and you put in “Suarez Cruz.” If she enlisted as “Suarez,” you won’t get the correct results. We suggest that you put in orders for “Maria Suarez Cruz,” “Maria Cruz” and “Maria Suarez” just to make sure to cover all your bases. The last thing you want is to swear to the court that someone is not in the military, only to find out that you searched the wrong variation of the name.
Suffixes like “Jr.” go here and not in the Last Name field.
If you know the social security number, that will insure an accurate response. The social security number is the ONLY positive way of confirming an SCRA verification. If you don’t have it, we will access databases to try to find it so that we can present it for precise DMDC verification.
If you don’t have the SSN, you do need to help us out by giving information here about the debtor.
This “plus sign” gives you an idea of what information helps us.
Particularly helpful would be addresses, phone numbers and relatives’ names. Err on the side of giving us more information as opposed to less. We don’t want to delay your results by having to come back to you for more information.
If you know the date of birth, or any of the digits, put it here. If the DMDC confirms the date of birth, you have a higher degree of knowing that the military status verification is accurate.
The Active Duty Status Date is usually left blank. It is the date that you want to know if the person is active on. It’s like asking “What is the person’s status as of THIS date”? If you want to know the status as of a date in the past, you can fill it in. Verifications are as of a particular date and one year before that date. If you want to cover a span of time, put in multiple orders, each with a different Active Duty Status Date.
If you want to keep track of certain information for your OWN records, you have two fields which are optional. Many people have to bill these searches to their clients. You can use one field, for example, for your own billing information, the second field for the case or client number. You can change the names of these fields in “My Account” and it will help you sort later on.
Here you can either get ready to place another name (either a new individual or a variation of the last name) or you can go directly to check out.
Your running tab always appears on this ribbon on the right of the screen.
The affidavit screen is pretty straight forward. You have to click “yes” or “no” to continue. Either you order an affidavit and we send you a raised-seal, notarized affidavit for you to supply to your court, or you just rely upon results sent to you by email. There is a surcharge of $20 for an affidavit.
Either way, you get an email response.
Select your state. We’ll select Florida as an example.
Some courts have their own forms of affidavit. If that form has been supplied to us, it is available to you as an option. If you come across a form we do not have, please send it to us and will incorporate it to be a choice in the future.
In Florida, for example, the Family Division of the Circuit Court has a form they prefer you use. Otherwise, in most situations, the USA-Standard affidavit will suffice. You can also request Fedex Delivery.
The payment screen is fairly standard. You still see your ribbon on the right.
You can pay either with Paypal or with a credit card.
If you have ordered an affidavit, you will be prompted for your delivery address. If you have selected Fedex, make sure you don’t use a post office box.
You need to “agree” to the Terms of Service at the bottom to continue.
You’ve done it!
You will get an order confirmation by email immediately.
The turnaround time for the military status verification is usually 5-15 minutes if you have supplied the social security number and before midnight if you haven’t. This is subject to the Defense Department Database being “up.” If it is down, everything is queued so that your order gets submitted quickly, and in order.
At the “My Account” screen, you can change your preferences, including the Custom Fields for your own use. They help you sort and find your orders later.
The “Order Status” page allows your to find and sort and also lets you order affidavits if you didn’t order one at the original time of checkout.
This is all pretty easy, but, if you have questions, you can always click here to chat with us. All operators are very familiar with the system and are happy to help.
Thank you for watching this video and, on behalf of the SCRACVS, we look forward to being a resource to you.