Start with what VA is actually deciding

A disability compensation claim asks VA two questions, and they are separate:

1. Is this condition connected to your service? A legal question, answered under one of several theories.
2. If so, how severe is it? A different question, answered against rating criteria.

Evidence that answers one may say nothing about the other. A denial for "no evidence of a connection to service" is not fixed by more evidence of how bad the condition is, and that mismatch is the single most common wasted effort in this process.

The usual shape

An application, then development of the record, then an examination or medical opinion if VA needs one, then a decision letter addressing each issue by name.

If you disagree, the modernized system offers three routes — a Supplemental Claim, a Higher-Level Review, or a Board appeal. A final Board decision can go to court.

Work out which thing you are filing

These are different, and they use different forms:

• An initial claim — a condition VA has not decided before.
• An increase — a condition already service-connected that has worsened.
• A review of a prior decision — VA decided, you disagree. That is not a new claim, and filing it as one can cost you an effective date.

VA Form 21-526EZ is the application. The review routes have their own forms.

Name every condition you are claiming, on the form. VA must read what you send sympathetically, and a claim is not strictly limited to the word you wrote — see Clemons. But since March 2015 a claim has to be filed on the prescribed form, and the older cases about claims VA should have found in a letter or a statement apply to filings made before then — see Bonds. Writing less and relying on VA to notice is a strategy built on rules that no longer exist.

Two things worth doing early

Keep the decision letter whole, with its date and every page. The date on it starts clocks.

Do not wait to be ready. If a deadline is approaching and a record has not arrived, read dates and deadlines before deciding to wait. A phone call, a records request, or a complaint does not preserve a review deadline.

If you have not filed yet

Compensation runs from the date the claim arrives, not from the date the condition started, and outside the first year after separation there is no reaching back. Why that makes waiting expensive — and why holding a job does not defeat a rating.

Next: why file now · who does what · what evidence can establish · find accredited help

Reviewed October 6, 2026