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Free Hunting and Fishing Licences — 100% P&T or Unemployability

A resident veteran the VA holds permanently and totally disabled at the 100% rate — or rated individually unemployable — gets any hunting or fishing licence that does not require a separate application free of charge.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

A resident veteran the VA holds permanently and totally disabled at the 100% rate — or rated individually unemployable — gets any hunting or fishing licence that does not require a separate application free of charge.

What it's worth: Any hunting or fishing licence that does not require a separate application, free of charge

  • The waiver reaches every over-the-counter licence but not licences issued through a separate application or drawing — the department states the limit in exactly those terms.

Who is entitled to it

  • The VA holds you permanently and totally disabled at the 100% rate.
  • The VA rates you individually unemployable.
  • You are a resident of this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Obtain VA documentation stating either the 100% permanent-and-total determination or the individual-unemployability rating — the department says this eligibility proof should be in your possession when obtaining the free licences AND while afield.
  2. 2The waiver covers licences that do not require a separate application. Licences allocated through a drawing sit outside it.
  3. 3The 100% route is stated for disabilities other than blindness; the unemployability route carries no such carve-out on the department's page.
Form
None — issued at the point of sale
File with
Any licence vendor, the eLicense system or the Hunt Fish app
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
Annual
Claimed once a year.
Worth knowingThe same page waives hunting and fishing licence fees for full-time active-duty members who keep state residency — except licences obtained through a drawing — on presentation of military ID or orders with a state driver's licence or voter registration card. That is a serving-member concession rather than a veteran one, and fees are not waived for nonresidents on active duty.
Known gapPublished from the administering department's page alone. The statute the waiver is reported to rest on, MCL 324.43537, sits behind a firewall that blocks retrieval, so the statutory text — including exactly which licences count as requiring a separate application — remains unread at source.

Sources

Why only one source type: The department's own licence-information page states both eligibility routes, the blindness carve-out, the residency requirement, the documentation rule and the separate-application limit. The statute reported behind it, MCL 324.43537, still cannot be read at the legislature's site from this environment.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.