You can use the VA IRRRL streamline once you clear the seasoning rule: the later of 210 days after the first payment due date on your current loan, and six consecutive monthly payments made. Both clocks have to run out. Count 210 days from the first payment due date, not from closing, and make sure six consecutive monthly payments are in. Six consecutive payments is the requirement, not twelve months of history, so the 210-day clock is usually the one you end up waiting on. That waiting period is why it pays to watch rates from day one instead of assuming you can move the moment something better shows up. We've seen borrowers who would have benefited from an IRRRL early on but hadn't cleared seasoning, and by the time they were eligible the window had moved. Nobody can promise which way rates go, so the goal is to be ready when your number shows up. A VA cash-out refinance has its own, generally stricter seasoning, so don't assume the IRRRL timeline carries over. The practical move: get on a rate watch with a realistic target the day you close, so the moment you're both eligible and the math works, you can act. If you want us to check your seasoning date and a realistic strike price, that's the free Roadmap conversation, about 20 minutes where we run your real numbers.