In short
If you are a veteran and an agency keeps sending you from window to window, there is a person you can ask for by title. Act 51-2011 orders the designation of an Agency Coordinator and an Auxiliary Coordinator for Veteran Affairs at every agency, instrumentality or public enterprise of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for guaranteeing rights or services under the Veteran’s Bill of Rights or any other state or federal law. It is not a new post or a contract: the law expressly prohibits hiring or appointing anyone for the sole purpose of serving as coordinator, so a regular career or trust employee already at the agency is designated, with preference given to veterans in the appointment, though being a veteran is not a requirement. They work out of their agency’s Office of Citizen Services. And their duties are concrete: to represent, process and handle every request, petition or action on benefits and services a veteran asks for at that agency; to coordinate talks and seminars with employees about the benefits their organism offers veterans; to keep a record of veterans served; and to send the Office of the Veterans Advocate a report twice (2) a year with the veteran served, the request channelled and the results obtained.
What is it?
It is a two-and-a-half page law that creates a role, not a program. It grows out of Act 203-2007, the Bill of Rights of the 21st Century Puerto Rican Veteran, with a premise its own statement of motives writes down: veterans deserve, when requesting services, to be advised consciously, comprehensively and responsibly about their particular benefits, "which most of them do not know about". The legislative answer was to place at every agency someone who does know them and who answers for the handling. Article 9 clarifies that none of this limits the powers and duties of other laws applicable to veterans: the coordinator adds, it does not replace.
Who can do it?
The duty falls on every agency, instrumentality or public enterprise of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for guaranteeing rights or services under the Veteran’s Bill of Rights or any other state or federal law. On the citizen side, the beneficiary is the veteran who comes to that agency. As to who may be coordinator: they must be a regular career or trust employee of the agency at the time of designation, and both — coordinator and auxiliary — must be public employees in the career service, hold extensive knowledge of state and federal veteran laws and regulations and of their own agency’s enabling act, and be trained to design and conduct investigations and studies on veterans’ situations, individual or collective.
Requirements
- Being a veteran and going to an agency, instrumentality or public enterprise of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for guaranteeing veterans’ rights or services.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Information pending verification.
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: Ask for the title, not a name
"Agency Coordinator for Veteran Affairs". If that person is out, there is an Auxiliary Coordinator whose duty, per Article 4, is to substitute in all functions when the Agency Coordinator is not present. Both work out of the agency’s Office of Citizen Services, which is where to ask first.
Step 2: Put your request in their hands
Article 3(B) is where the leverage is: the Agency Coordinator "shall represent, process and be responsible for handling every request, petition or action on benefits and services requested by veterans" at their agency. It is not an information desk: it is the person responsible for the handling inside that organism.
Step 3: Remember your case gets counted
The coordinator keeps a record documenting the veterans served, and sends the Office of the Veterans Advocate a report twice (2) a year with the veteran served, the request channelled and the results obtained. If your matter goes unresolved, that report is part of the trail: the Office of the Veterans Advocate is, under Article 5(A), charged with guaranteeing compliance with this law.
Step 4: If nobody at the agency knows who it is
The law closes that gap from two sides. Article 8 requires every Agency and Auxiliary Coordinator to register as such with the Office of the Veterans Advocate, and Article 6 requires agency heads to notify the Advocate of their selection. In other words: the one who should know the name is the Veterans Advocate, and that is where to ask when the agency does not answer.
Where to do it
At the Office of Citizen Services of the very agency where your matter sits. When they cannot help, the route is the Office of the Veterans Advocate, which by law guarantees compliance, keeps the coordinators’ registry, receives agency heads’ notifications, and periodically offers coordinators and auxiliaries training on the Veteran’s Bill of Rights.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
What this law does not give you, and so we do not invent: a directory. The law requires coordinators to register with the Office of the Veterans Advocate and requires agency heads to notify their selection within thirty (30) calendar days of the regulation’s promulgation, but it does not order a list published, and we found no official directory to cite. So the realistic step is to ask for the title at the agency and, failing that, go to the Advocate. One detail worth knowing if anyone asks you for something in return: Article 7 prohibits the Agency or Auxiliary Coordinator from receiving money, gifts, donations or any direct or indirect benefit for their work before any public or private organism on behalf of veterans, and violation carries the applicable criminal and administrative sanctions.
Common mistakes
- Explaining your case at the general window without asking for the Agency Coordinator for Veteran Affairs.
- Giving up because the coordinator is out: there is an Auxiliary Coordinator who substitutes in all functions.
- Looking for them anywhere: the law seats them at the agency’s Office of Citizen Services.
- Assuming it is an information desk; their duty is to handle and answer for the request inside that agency.
- Not going to the Veterans Advocate when the agency cannot help: they keep the registry and guarantee compliance.
- Paying or "thanking" the coordinator for the handling: Article 7 expressly prohibits it.
Frequently asked questions
Must every agency have one?
The law requires it of every agency, instrumentality or public enterprise of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for guaranteeing rights or services under the Veteran’s Bill of Rights or any other state or federal law. That reach is broad: it covers the organisms administering benefits, services or rights that may touch a veteran.
Does the coordinator have to be a veteran?
No. The law says preference shall be given to veterans when appointing that personnel, but that veteran status shall not be a fundamental requirement for holding these posts.
Can I ask them to hire someone to attend to me?
No, and the law says so: no person may be hired or appointed for the sole purpose of serving as Agency or Auxiliary Coordinator, in keeping with the fiscal austerity measures in force. What can be demanded is that they designate an employee already at the agency.
Who trains these coordinators?
The Office of the Veterans Advocate. The law charges it with structuring and offering the training needed so coordinators and auxiliaries know the rights and benefits current veteran legislation grants, and with offering it periodically on the Veteran’s Bill of Rights.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Oficina del Procurador del Veterano Puertorriqueño
Procurador del Veterano
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
August 23, 2026
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