Reading your VA decision letter

The parts of the letter

Your decision letter is not just a verdict. It is a map.

When VA decides your claim, it must send you a written decision. You can read and download it in the claim status tool on VA.gov, and a paper copy comes by mail, usually within 10 business days. Federal law requires that the notice include specific things: the issues decided, the evidence considered, the laws applied, the findings that went in your favor, and, for any denial, exactly which requirements were not met. Knowing where each piece lives changes what you do next.

The decision, one condition at a time.

Your letter addresses each condition you claimed. VA calls each one a contention or an issue. For each one, the answer is one of three things:

• Granted. VA agrees the condition is connected to your service. You get a rating percentage and an effective date for that condition.
• Denied. VA decided a required element was not met. The letter must tell you which element. That sentence is the most important one in the letter, because it tells you what any future evidence needs to address.
• Deferred. VA is not ready to decide that condition yet. It needs more development, such as an exam or records it is still gathering. A deferral is not a denial and not a loss. There is nothing to appeal yet, because there is no decision on that issue. VA continues working it and decides it in a later decision.

A single letter can contain all three. A grant of one condition and a deferral of another in the same letter is common.

The percentage and the 4-digit code.

Each granted condition gets a rating percentage and a diagnostic code, a 4-digit number from VA's rating schedule (the numbers run from 5000 to 9999). The code shows which set of criteria VA used to rate you. Some codes are hyphenated, like 5002-5240. That means VA rated a condition based on its residual effects, using the second code's criteria. Codes ending in 99 mean your condition is not listed by name in the schedule, so VA rated it by analogy to the closest listed condition. The code matters when you read the "criteria for the next higher level" part of your letter: it tells you which symptom thresholds the next percentage up requires.

The effective date, which is where the money is.

The effective date is the day your entitlement legally starts, and back pay is calculated from it. The general rule: the date VA received your claim, or the date entitlement arose, whichever is later. Two timing rules commonly change it:

• If VA received your claim within 1 year after you separated from active service, the effective date for direct service connection can be the day after separation.
• If you filed an intent to file (VA Form 21-0966, or an application you started and saved online) and completed the full claim within 1 year, the effective date is based on the day VA received the intent to file, not the day you finished the form.

One detail worth knowing: the intent-to-file rule does not apply to Supplemental Claims. For those, the date protection comes from a different rule, described in the decision tree below.

Check the effective date on every granted condition. It is a specific finding, and it can be reviewed just like a percentage can.

The evidence list.

The letter must include a summary of the evidence VA considered. Read it as a checklist. If something you sent, or something VA was supposed to get, is missing from the list, that is a fact worth knowing before you choose what to do next. The letter must also explain how to get access to the evidence VA used.

Reasons for the decision.

For each issue, the letter explains what the evidence showed and how the law applied to it. For denials, this is where VA identifies the missing element: for example, no current diagnosis, no in-service event, or no medical link between the two. Match the stated missing element to your next step. Evidence that addresses a different element does not move the decision.

Favorable findings: the section almost nobody reads.

Under the current review system, the letter must list the findings that went in your favor, even when the overall decision is a denial. For example: VA may find that your in-service event happened and that you have a current diagnosis, while denying the claim because the medical link between them was not established.

Here is why that section matters. Federal law makes each favorable finding binding on every VA adjudicator who touches your case afterward. The statute says a favorable finding stands unless clear and convincing evidence is shown to the contrary. VA's regulation describes rebuttal as evidence identifying a clear and unmistakable error in the finding. Either way, the bar is high. In practice this means a later review starts from what you have already established, not from zero. Evidence you gather afterward can be aimed only at the element that failed, because the elements you won are already settled unless VA meets that high bar.

If the answer is no.

A denial letter is hard to read, and plenty of veterans set it down and never pick it back up. If a decision has you struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is there around the clock: dial 988, then press 1. The decision itself is not the end of the process. The current system is built around further review, and the letter itself must include a summary of your review options. Those options are described next.

Your claims file is yours to see.

Everything VA used is in your claims file, called the C-file: your records, exam reports, the rating codesheet, and prior decisions. You can request a copy with VA Form 20-10206 (a Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act request), online at VA.gov or by mail. This is a different request from your military service records (your DD-214 and personnel file), which are held by the National Personnel Records Center and requested through milConnect or with form SF-180. The C-file shows what VA saw. The service records are what the military recorded. Reviewing the C-file before choosing a next step is how you find out what the reviewer was actually looking at.

After the decision, the three review lanes

VA's current review system, in place for decisions dated on or after February 19, 2019, has three lanes. Each is a different tool for a different situation. This page describes what each lane is and how its clock works. It does not, and cannot, tell you which lane fits your case: under federal accreditation rules, only an accredited representative, agent, or attorney may advise you on your specific claim. Accredited help is free through Veterans Service Organizations; the BeneVets VSO directory lists them, and VA keeps a public directory of accredited representatives.

A protection that spans all three lanes: the one-year chain.

Each decision starts a clock. If you file the next review within 1 year of each decision, the law treats your claim as continuously pursued, and the effective date stays anchored to your original claim. That chain can run through multiple rounds of review. A Supplemental Claim filed more than 1 year after the last decision is still allowed, but the chain breaks: the effective date then starts no earlier than the day VA receives the new filing. That difference is measured in back pay.

One more mechanic: the lanes run one at a time. While one review of an issue is pending, you cannot open a second lane on the same issue. You can withdraw one and switch to another, and switching within the 1-year window keeps the chain intact.

Lane 1: Supplemental Claim (VA Form 20-0995).

This lane exists for the situation where the record was missing something. It requires new and relevant evidence: new means VA has not considered it before, relevant means it proves or disproves something in your claim. VA's duty to assist applies in this lane, which means VA helps gather records from VA facilities, other federal agencies, and private providers you identify. A Supplemental Claim can be filed at any time after a decision, but the 1-year chain rule above governs the effective date. VA's stated goal for deciding non-health-care Supplemental Claims is 125 days; actual times vary.

Lane 2: Higher-Level Review (VA Form 20-0996).

This lane exists for the situation where the record was complete but you believe the decision was wrong on that record: an error of fact or law, or a judgment call that a more experienced reviewer might make differently. No new evidence is allowed; a higher-level reviewer re-examines the same file. You can request an optional informal conference, a phone call where you or your representative point out the claimed error, which can add time. The deadline is 1 year from the date on the decision letter. A Higher-Level Review of a Higher-Level Review is not available; after one, the paths are a Supplemental Claim or the Board. VA's stated goal is an average of 125 days; actual times vary.

Wrong effective dates and wrong percentages are commonly raised in this lane, because both are usually arguments that VA misapplied the rules to evidence already on file. There is also a separate, rarely used path for revising a final decision based on clear and unmistakable error; it has its own strict standard, and a description of it is beyond this page.

Lane 3: Board Appeal (VA Form 10182, the Notice of Disagreement).

This lane exists for the situation where you want a Veterans Law Judge, rather than a claims adjudicator, to decide. The deadline is 1 year from the decision. Filing it puts your case on one of three dockets, chosen on the form:

• Direct review. The judge decides on the existing record. No new evidence, no hearing. The Board's stated goal is a decision within 365 days.
• Evidence submission. You may add new evidence with the appeal or within 90 days after filing. No hearing. Stated goal: within 550 days.
• Hearing. You meet a Veterans Law Judge, virtually, by videoconference, or in person, and may submit evidence at the hearing or within 90 days after it. Stated goal: within 730 days.

The stated timelines are goals, not promises, and hearing dockets in particular often run longer. A Board decision that goes against you can be followed by a Supplemental Claim with new evidence, or by an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, which is a federal court with its own deadline and rules.

Reading the tree, not being told where to land.

The pattern across the lanes: missing evidence points at the Supplemental Claim lane's description, a claimed error on a complete record points at the Higher-Level Review description, and wanting a judge points at the Board description. How those descriptions apply to your facts is exactly the question an accredited representative exists to answer, at no cost through a VSO. What no lane rewards is waiting: every path is easier inside the 1-year window, because the effective-date chain stays whole.

The three lanes at a glance

The goals are VA's published targets, not promises. A deferred issue has no lane yet, because there is no decision on it to review.