Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 1853. First, know what you are filling: Verification of Reserve Status for Travel Eligibility. The document is titled DD Form 1853, Verification of Reserve Status for Travel Eligibility, October 1999..
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
Once you know the form fits, find out when you file it. not stated sets the requirement, and not stated maintains the form itself. Your own command or agency adds local timing on top of that, so ask your administrative office if the deadline matters to you.
Finally, decide how you will complete it. You can type into a fillable file or print a blank and write by hand, and the rest of this page walks you through both paths in order.
Begin at the top and move down. Enter your identifying data first, then the body of the form, then the signature block. The sequence is printed in that order because entries below frequently follow from entries above.
Check the edition before you type a word. The date appears on the face of the form; it should read not stated. When it does not, discard the file and take a fresh copy from this page. Department-level revisions replace the blank across all services simultaneously, which means an old printout can be out of step everywhere.
Take the fields in order and answer all of them. Mark inapplicable items N/A instead of leaving white space. When you reach a date, copy the format shown on the form, since a reviewer reading a different convention may misread your entry entirely.
Stop at the Privacy Act Statement and read it through. You will find the authority for the collection, the principal purpose, the routine uses, and whether disclosure is voluntary or mandatory. Read it now, while you still have the choice of what to disclose.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
Then check your work against the usual failures: an obsolete edition, empty required boxes, handwriting nobody can read after scanning, wrong date format, missing signature or date.
If a particular field puzzles you, read the instructions printed on the form first, then go to not stated. When the two disagree, follow the directive.
Download the form
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 1 pages, and you will complete roughly 19 fields.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Type when you can. Printed entries stay legible after the form is scanned, copied and forwarded, and handwriting often does not survive that trip. If you must write by hand, use block capitals and press firmly.
What the form asks for
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
- 1. Date prepared (4 digit year, two digit month, two digit day).
- Part A - to be completed by applicant. 2. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 3. Pay grade.
- 4. Branch of service.
- 5. Social Security Number. Do not include dashes.
- 6. Unit/command name.
- 7. Unit/command address.
- 8. Signature.
- 9. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- Part B - to be completed by verifying official. 10. From (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 11. To (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 12. Name of verifying official (last, first, middle initial).
- 13. Pay grade.
- 14. Title.
- 15. Organization.
- 16. Signature.
- 17. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
Now that it is complete, send it where not stated or your local procedure says it goes. Before you do, make yourself a copy — scan it or save the file elsewhere. It costs you nothing and saves you the whole exercise if the original goes missing.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
Watch out for one trap here. If your instructions cite a DA form as well, do not assume the numbers are connected. DA numbering belongs to the Army alone; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or another Department office. The same number in each system means two unrelated forms, so read the prefix before you download.
Come back and check the edition next time you need this form. Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the information collected changes, or when the required notice language is updated, and none of those events reaches you directly. Verifying not stated at the moment you download is the whole defence.
Finally, understand the limits of what you have read. This page distributes a published Department of Defense form and describes how to fill it out. It does not give legal or procedural advice, and it cannot promise any outcome for your particular case. For that, contact not stated, your administrative office, or the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1853?
- DD Form 1853, Verification of Reserve Status for Travel Eligibility, October 1999.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?