How Long Does Evidence Gathering Review and Decision Take

We hear questions about the VA Disability Merits timeline a lot at Strategic Veteran. Virtually agile-duty members are wondering if there are whatsoever deadlines to apply for benefits. And so we also have some Veterans who accept been out of service for 20-some years who recall they've missed the timeline to file for a VA inability Claim. We decided to create an overall timeline for VA Disability benefits whether you're a current or previous service member.

Agreement the VA's Timeline

The VA talks about 5 steps to their timeline:

1. Claim Received
2. Initial Review
3. Evidence Gathering
4. Preparation for Notification
5. Claim Complete

It seems uncomplicated enough, right?

Not quite. The VA states that 83 days was the average time frame to consummate a claim in December 2019.

Hither's a breakdown of those five steps:

Claim Received: 7 to xiv Days

There are 3 ways you could have submitted your claim:

• Online using VA Class 21-526EZ
• Using your eBenefits account
• Mailing VA Class 21-526EZ

Initial Review: vii to 21 Days

In this stage, your VA claim is under review by a Veteran Service Representative (VSR).

Fully developed claims will movement relatively fast through this stage because the VSR volition identify that there is sufficient prove for the claim to move forward. Standard claims may accept longer, non only in the initial review stage simply the unabridged process may be dragged out too.

Show Gathering: 30 to 90 Days

This stage can exist one of the deciding factors in how long your claim is going to take. The VA volition review any prove that you provided with your claim. If more evidence is needed for your merits, you lot may be contacted past a VSR to go to a Compensation and Pension exam (C&P Examination).

Depending on how complex your merits is, we typically recommend reaching out to a professional service to assistance with your inability claim. Paid services can help y'all submit a fully developed claim, which may get your claim out of this evidence-gathering stage quicker than a standard claim.

For our most recommended paid services for VA claims, requite usa a call and we'll go over what service we remember would exist best for your situation.

Grooming for Notification: 7 to xiv Days

The VA states that this is the next step in their process, but there are basically 3 steps inside this process.

• Training for Decision: Your VSR will route your claim and whatsoever additional evidence you may take sent in to a Rating Veterans Service Representative (RVSR)
• Pending Decision Approval: The RVSR working on your claim volition review your unabridged claim, including your initial application
• Deferred for Farther Development: If the RVSR needs more testify, and then your claim volition be sent back to the gathering evidence stage

Now we get to the actual Preparation for Notification. When your merits is in this step, it is decided. The RVSR will route the merits back to a VSR so the draft of the decision alphabetic character can be started. Before any official release, a Senior Veterans Service Representative (SVSR) volition review all completed documents for final dominance.

Claim Complete: 7 to 14 Days

The VA volition send yous a decision letter of the alphabet and the Observe of Disagreement Class past mail service. This is the final step to your VA claim unless you determine to appeal the VA'due south decision and become through the process again.

Tips for Active Duty War machine Members Thinking About VA Inability

If you're still in the armed forces and y'all're thinking about applying for VA disability benefits, and so yous should admittedly get get a physical. Exist certain to take everything looked at and documented. When y'all get ready to carve up from the military, yous can opt for the Benefits Delivery at Belch (BDD) process and file your claim that way.

If yous file within that beginning year of beingness out of the military, known equally the presumptive year, you could accept your decision letter within a month or 2. The VA may be more apt to decide in your favor during this presumptive year.

National Baby-sit or Reserve Members

If yous are a national guard or reserve member on drill weekend when an accident occurs, the incident must be documented in a line of duty investigation. The investigation protects both yous and the government because it proves the blow occurred on war machine time and is the responsibleness of the authorities.

If you deploy and are injured on active duty orders or National Title 10, that injury falls nether the BDD process over again because y'all just separated from the military 'free and clear.'

Within that presumptive twelvemonth again, you lot should be able to file things that happened during that fourth dimension and have these claims accepted by the VA with less trouble.

Timeline for Veterans Filing For VA Inability Benefits Claims

What if you are simply now learning about your rights to file a merits, even twenty years after your military service? The good news is that there's no constabulary that says you take to file a VA claim within a certain amount of time. The bad news is that you lot may have missed out on years of VA disability compensation, then begin thinking near filing your VA claim soon!

If you served during a wartime that the VA recognizes, you may want to consider filing a presumptive disability claim. For instance, a common presumptive merits is a condition that is associated with Amanuensis Orange exposure during the Vietnam State of war.

Another presumptive exposure is contaminated drinking water at Campsite Lejeune or atomic exposure from diffusion plants in Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Ohio, or Oak Ridge, Tennessee, before Feb. 1, 1992.

The VA presumes that exposure to certain substances is the probable cause of certain diseases. If you have one of these identified diseases and served during a place and time where you could have been exposed, you lot can submit a presumptive claim. The VA should accept it without much additional burden of proof on your part.

Establishing Service Connection in Your VA Disability Benefits Claim

You don't need a presumptive condition to file a merits years after your military service ended. You lot just take to prove your disability is connected to your military service. That isn't always easy, only you will definitely have more success when you provide a Nexus letter of the alphabet.

This letter of the alphabet, ordinarily from a medical professional, connects a veteran's current medical status to another service-continued condition, or to circumstances directly related to military service.

A link to an already service-connected disability opens the door for filing for other symptoms you're dealing with because of the original injury.

For example, some over-the-counter pain remedies and prescribed medications can crusade gastroesophageal reflux disease over time. You may take heard this 'acrid reflux' called GERD. If you have GERD because of medications you are taking for your service-connected injuries, you can file a new claim for the GERD.

Document, Document, Document – It Will Greatly Improve Your VA Claim!

Your claim'southward credence depends on how well you lot have documented your injuries and chronic conditions. That includes how many times you lot've been treated for this condition.

Having a newspaper trail for your status(s) is important because it can act as bear witness that you're injury or condition has gotten worse over time. Fo

The takeaway hither is don't hesitate to get your medical problems checked out. Documentation helps the VA see that a disability is continuously affecting you, making them more than apt to take your claim regardless of when you lot file.

Determination

Getting your disability claim through the VA organisation is no easy task. It's important to know what you're jumping into and how the timeline works. When information technology comes down to the VA disability claim timeline, there isn't a 'one size fits all' approach but we may be able to guess an gauge of how long your claim will take based on the type of merits you're filing. If you lot're curious nearly what'southward to come with your VA claim, requite us a call at Strategic Veteran.

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Source: https://strategicveteran.org/va-disability-claim-timeline/#:~:text=Evidence%20Gathering%3A%2030%20to%2090%20Days&text=The%20VA%20will%20review%20any,Pension%20exam%20(C%26P%20Exam).