Registering a Discharge with a Wisconsin Register of Deeds

Section 45.05 provides for the registration of a certificate of discharge with a Wisconsin register of deeds, free of charge. It is the cheapest thing in this file and one of the most useful, because almost every chapter 45 benefit requires the discharge document and a registered copy can be retrieved locally in days. The alternative is a request to the National Personnel Records Center, which is slower, and considerably slower for records damaged in the 1973 fire at the St. Louis facility. A family arranging a funeral is the worst possible moment to discover the DD214 cannot be found. Section 45.045 separately creates a veteran registry maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. Registering is voluntary and its purpose is contact rather than proof: it lets the department reach a veteran about benefits, and it is the mechanism behind outreach campaigns for programmes like the property tax credit that veterans routinely do not know they qualify for. Section 45.04 governs the release of information and records held by the department, and treats veteran records as restricted rather than open. A veteran concerned about what a registered discharge exposes should ask the register of deeds specifically about public access and redaction before registering, because a DD214 carries a social security number, a date and place of birth, the character of service and sometimes the narrative reason for separation. Registration practice on access varies, and the chapter 45 confidentiality rule governs department records rather than register of deeds records. For a veteran without the document at all, the county or tribal veterans service officer under 45.80 will request military records on the veteran's behalf. That is the route to use rather than filing a records request alone, because the service officer knows which form and which repository, and the service is free. Three things a veteran should have registered or filed before needing them: the discharge, with the register of deeds; the WDVA verification of eligibility and residency, which is what the property tax credit and the GI Bill remission both run on; and, where applicable, a current VA rating decision, since several Wisconsin programmes require certification issued within the preceding twelve months rather than accepting an old letter. That twelve-month freshness rule catches people. The non-competitive appointment route in 230.275 requires federal certification issued within the year preceding appointment, and borough-level programmes elsewhere in this catalog use similar windows. A rating that has not changed in fifteen years still needs a recent letter, and VA will issue one on request at no cost.