Federal Contracting for Veteran-Owned Businesses

Educational information, not legal or contracting advice. Federal rules, dollar thresholds, processing times, and portal URLs change — always confirm current figures at the primary government sources linked throughout this page before you act. Last reviewed June 2026.

1. How to get SDVOSB certified

SDVOSB (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business) and VOSB (Veteran-Owned Small Business) certification is handled by the U.S. Small Business Administration through its Veteran Small Business Certification program (VetCert). The certification function moved from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the SBA on January 1, 2023 under the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, replacing the VA's former Center for Verification and Evaluation. SBA began accepting applications in the new portal on January 9, 2023.

Do you qualify? (eligibility)

Two separate tests must both be met — 51% ownership alone is not enough:

• Ownership. One or more veterans (for VOSB) — or one or more veterans the VA has rated service-disabled (for SDVOSB) — must directly and unconditionally own at least 51% of the business (13 CFR 128.200, 128.202).
• Control. A qualifying veteran must control both long-term decisions and day-to-day operations, hold the highest officer position (usually President or CEO), and generally work full-time during normal business hours (13 CFR 128.203).
• Small business. The firm must qualify as small under the SBA size standard for at least one NAICS code in its SAM.gov profile. See section 4 on picking NAICS codes.
• Service-disabled status (SDVOSB only). The owner's service-connected disability must be recorded by the VA. Importantly, the regulation (13 CFR 128.102) sets no minimum disability-rating percentage — a veteran with any service-connected rating recorded by the VA, even 0%, can meet the definition. There is no rating floor, despite a common misconception otherwise.

Before you apply

• Register in SAM.gov first and get your free Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Size eligibility is judged against the NAICS code(s) in your SAM profile. Have your UEI and company bank account number handy.
• Match your VA records exactly. Your full legal name (including middle name and any suffix), date of birth, and personal residential address must match what the VA has on file, or the electronic VA validation will fail. Reconcile your profile at va.gov first, and do not resubmit until SBA and VA records agree. Because SBA validates veteran status electronically against VA data, a separate DD-214 or rating-letter upload is generally not needed when records match.

Documents you'll likely need

SBA does not publish one fixed checklist — required documents depend on your entity type and your answers to situational questions, and a reviewer may ask for more. As a general guide from the SBA fact sheet:

• LLC — Articles of Organization (with amendments), state certificate of formation, Operating Agreement (with amendments), and minutes evidencing operating practices.
• Corporation — Articles of Incorporation, by-laws (with amendments), state certificate, shareholder agreements, minutes, and the most recent stock ledger.
• Partnership — Partnership Agreement plus proof of formation/existence (and minutes for LP/LLP).
• Sole proprietorship — one of: the IRS SS-4 EIN letter, a fictitious/trade-name certificate, or your most recent Schedule C.
• Situational — e.g., marriage certificate (surviving spouse), VA written determination of permanent and total disability plus caregiver appointment (caregiver applicant), franchise agreement, an ethics letter if a household member is a federal employee at GS-13+, or a revocable trust agreement if the business is trust-owned.

Apply — for free

• Where: start at www.sba.gov/vetcert; the online application is filed in the MySBA Certifications portal at certifications.sba.gov. (Older certify.sba.gov links generally redirect to the current portal.) You'll choose whether you're applying for VOSB or SDVOSB.
• Cost: nothing. SBA's portal states, "SBA does not charge any costs for applying to our programs." Be wary of third parties charging a fee to "get" you certified.
• Timeline: as of November 11, 2025, SBA reported processing averaged about 12 days after clearing its backlog to zero actionable cases. This is a point-in-time figure — it averaged 30 days at the program's launch and reached 81 days by the end of 2024 — so don't count on a guaranteed turnaround.
• Help: email [email protected] or call 866-SBA-HELP (866-722-4357), Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. ET.

Primary source: SBA — Veteran contracting assistance programs and the SBA VetCert fact sheet (April 2024).

2. Register & be found on SAM.gov

SAM.gov (the System for Award Management) is the federal government's front door for doing business with agencies. Registration and the Unique Entity ID are free — the government warns you do not need to pay a third party.

Get your UEI

The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) is now the authoritative federal identifier (it replaced the DUNS number) and is assigned inside SAM.gov. For a UEI-only request you only need your legal business name and physical address. Start at sam.gov.

Complete a full entity registration

To bid on contracts as a prime contractor you need a full, active registration — and it must stay active when you submit an offer, at award, and throughout the life of the contract. A full registration includes:

• Core data — UEI, legal business name, TIN, and financial/banking information.
• Assertions — the goods and services you provide and your NAICS codes.
• Representations & Certifications — the statutory/regulatory reps and certs.
• Points of contact.

Plan ahead: SAM processing averages a few business days, with external reviews that can take up to about 10 business days. See GSA — Register your business.

What certification unlocks in the system

• Once SBA certifies a firm, its VOSB/SDVOSB status is verified and visible to contracting officers through SBA's Small Business Search (the former Dynamic Small Business Search / DSBS) at search.certifications.sba.gov, and the firm's status is designated in SAM. Contracting officers are required to verify a firm is designated in SAM as an SBA-certified SDVOSB before making an SDVOSB award (FAR 19.1403(b), effective Jan 1, 2024).
• Self-certification has ended: for sole-source/set-aside awards as of December 31, 2023, and for subcontracting and agency goaling credit as of December 22, 2024. A firm must now be SBA-certified — not self-certified — to count.

A note on honesty: a business that is still pursuing certification (like ours) is not yet certified, cannot yet be designated as an SDVOSB in SAM, and cannot count toward SDVOSB goals or win SDVOSB set-asides until SBA grants certification. Plan your bidding around when you'll actually hold the certificate.

3. Find & win contracts: competitive intelligence

Certification opens the door; competitive intelligence is how you walk through it. Here is the practical research toolkit veterans use to find where the money is and where they can realistically compete.

Where SDVOSBs win

• The VA is the most favorable. Under the VA "Veterans First" program (38 U.S.C. 8127–8128; VAAR Subpart 819.70) and the Supreme Court's Kingdomware decision, the VA must set a contract aside for SDVOSBs/VOSBs whenever the "Rule of Two" is met — a reasonable expectation that two or more eligible certified firms will bid at a fair price. VA SDVOSB sole-source awards are allowed up to $5 million. VOSB/SDVOSB set-asides take priority over other small-business set-asides at the VA.
• Government-wide is discretionary. Across other agencies (FAR Subpart 19.14), contracting officers may — but are not required to — set aside or sole-source to SDVOSBs under the Rule of Two. So outside the VA, the government-wide goal and relationship-building matter more.
• Sole-source caps (current as of Oct 1, 2025): an SDVOSB sole-source award will not exceed $8.5 million for manufacturing NAICS codes or $5 million for any other NAICS code (FAR 19.1406). These figures are inflation-adjusted periodically — re-verify before relying on them.
• The goals: the government targets at least 5% of federal contracting dollars to SDVOSBs each year (raised from 3% by the NDAA for FY2024), and the VA sets higher goals — at least 15% of its contract dollars to SDVOSBs and 17% to VOSBs (in place since FY2019). These are annual goals, not a guaranteed pool reserved for any one firm.

The sub-threshold "sweet spot"

Smaller buys are friendlier to new firms. As of October 1, 2025 (current thresholds, FAR 2.101): the micro-purchase threshold is $15,000 and the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) is $350,000. Most purchases between those two figures are reserved for small business when the Rule of Two is met — a strong place for a newly certified SDVOSB to compete. (Some older sources still cite $10,000/$250,000; those are out of date.)

Research tools — find the opportunities

• SAM.gov Contract Opportunities — filter by Set-Aside Type (including SDVOSB), NAICS, agency, and place of performance. Save searches and turn on email alerts. Watch the "Sources Sought" and "Special Notice" types to catch market research before a solicitation is finalized.
• Respond to Sources Sought / RFIs. When an agency posts a Sources Sought notice it's doing market research and hasn't committed to a set-aside yet. SDVOSBs that respond showing capability help the contracting officer form a "reasonable expectation" of two-or-more SDVOSB offers — which mandates a set-aside at the VA and enables one elsewhere. It's the highest-leverage, lowest-cost move for a small firm.
• USAspending.gov & FPDS — incumbent and agency analysis. Search by NAICS, agency, or recipient to learn which agencies buy what you sell, who holds the work now, what they were paid, and when the contract expires. That tells you where real money flows and which recompetes are coming.
• Agency OSDBUs. Every agency has an Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization whose job is to help small/SDVOSB firms win that agency's work. Identify which agencies buy your NAICS (via USAspending), then contact their OSDBU to get on the radar and learn upcoming requirements.
• Subcontracting is the on-ramp. If you can't win a prime contract yet, win work under a large prime — primes on contracts above the subcontracting-plan floor (raised to $900,000 effective Oct 1, 2025) must include separate SDVOSB subcontracting goals (FAR Subpart 19.7). Free APEX Accelerators counseling is the most reliable place to find subcontracting help; SBA's SubNet lets you browse existing listings.

Your capability statement & past performance

A one-page capability statement is your core marketing asset for OSDBUs and prime contractors. It should fit on a single page and include: core competencies, what makes you different, relevant past performance (a handful of similar-scope jobs with metrics), your socioeconomic status, and key identifiers (UEI, CAGE, NAICS). Federal buyers check CPARS ratings to gauge risk, so build a track record. For a brand-new firm with no federal past performance, the realistic play is to build past performance through subcontracting first, then go after prime awards. The one-page convention is industry practice, not a regulation.

4. How to pick your NAICS codes

NAICS codes describe what your business does, and each one carries an SBA size standard (a maximum number of employees or annual receipts) that determines whether you count as "small." Choosing them deliberately is part of your strategy:

• For SBA eligibility, the SBA looks at the primary NAICS code in your SAM.gov profile and whether you're small under it.
• For a specific contract, the contracting officer assigns one NAICS code per solicitation — the single industry that best describes the principal purpose of the buy — and you must be small under that code to qualify for that set-aside (FAR 19.102). The size standard in effect on the solicitation's issue date applies.
• Strategy: pick a primary NAICS where you're clearly small and competitive, and target solicitations whose assigned NAICS matches it.
• Check your size with SBA's free Size Standards Tool and the full table at 13 CFR 121.201 — see SBA Size Standards. Don't hard-code a dollar size standard; they're reviewed and adjusted periodically, so confirm with the live tool.

About this guide (and Jon Lynch Financial Group)

We're Jon Lynch Financial Group LLC (brand: Pillar), a veteran-owned small business founded in 2026 and based in Miami, Florida, led by founder Jonathan Lynch. We build seven products across financial technology and developer tools — Bask, Velo, Forge, Comet, Vault, Quorum, and Sweep.

We are a veteran-owned small business currently pursuing SDVOSB certification ourselves. We are not certified yet, and we don't claim to be. We built this page because the process is genuinely confusing, and as we work through SBA VetCert and SAM.gov we're documenting what we learn so other veteran entrepreneurs can navigate it faster. Everything here points to the primary government sources so you can verify it yourself.

Questions, corrections, or want to compare notes on the process? Call (786) 777-8869 or email [email protected].

Frequently asked