Do this first
The right order
Most sheets on this subject have the order backwards. Filing comes early, not last.
- File an intent to file — VA Form 21-0966, or just start the application online,
which sets your date automatically. This locks in your start date and gives you a year.
- Get checked out. You need a current diagnosis from a doctor. Be honest about every symptom.
- Gather your evidence — see the next card.
- File the claim — VA Form 21-526EZ. Online at
va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim,
by mail, in person at a VA regional office, or by fax.
- Attend your exam if VA schedules one.
✅ Start the clock before you start the work.
The frame
What a claim has to show
Three things. Every piece of evidence you gather is proving one of them.
- A current disability a doctor has diagnosed
- An in-service event — an injury, illness, incident or exposure
- A medical link tying the two together (called a nexus)
The sick call record is only ever proof of number two.
There are other ways to prove number two. And for some conditions you do not need number three at all.
Diagnosed years after you got out? Still fileable. Under 38 CFR 3.303(d), VA may grant
service connection for a disease diagnosed after discharge when the evidence shows it was incurred
in service.
✅ Know which box you are filling.
Mental health
PTSD: your own word can carry the stressor
This is the rule almost nobody gets told. If your claim is PTSD or another mental
health condition from something that happened in service, you may need no service record at all.
- 38 CFR 3.304(f)(3) — if your stressor was fear of hostile military or terrorist
activity, VA's regulation says "the veteran's lay testimony alone may establish the occurrence
of the claimed in-service stressor," so long as a VA psychiatrist or psychologist confirms the
stressor is adequate to support the diagnosis and your symptoms relate to it. No incident report.
No sick call slip. Your testimony.
- 38 CFR 3.304(f)(5) — for a personal assault or military sexual trauma, "evidence
from sources other than the veteran's service records may corroborate" your account: police or
counseling records, medical tests, or evidence that your behavior changed — a transfer request,
a drop in performance, substance use, a sudden request for a new assignment. And VA may not deny
that claim without first telling you those alternative sources exist.
- The form: VA Form 21-0781, Statement in Support of Claimed Mental Health Disorder(s) Due
to an In-Service Traumatic Event(s). One form now covers PTSD, personal assault and MST —
va.gov/find-forms/about-form-21-0781.
Do not use VA Form 21-0781a. The old separate personal-assault and MST version was
discontinued on 28 June 2024 and folded into 21-0781. If an older binder or a website tells
you to file 21-0781a, it is pointing you at a dead form.
✅ You are the record.
Combat
If you engaged in combat with the enemy
The law already assumes your paperwork is incomplete.
If you engaged in combat with the enemy during a period
of war, campaign, or expedition, 38 USC 1154(b) requires VA to accept satisfactory lay or
other evidence that the injury or disease was incurred in or aggravated by that service — if it is
consistent with the circumstances, conditions or hardships of that service — even though there is
no official record of it, resolving every reasonable doubt in your favor.
Know the limit. That rule proves the in-service piece only. You still need a current
diagnosis, and unless the condition is presumptive, you still need the medical link. Your word alone
does not carry the whole claim — it carries the part the missing record was supposed to carry.
✅ No record required. Say so in your claim.
Save your money
Some conditions need no nexus at all
VA's own words: "If you have a presumptive condition, you don't need to prove that
your service caused the condition."
- Within one year of discharge — a chronic condition on the 38 CFR 3.309(a) list that
reaches at least 10% disabling within a year of separation. Longer windows for some:
3 years for Hansen's disease and tuberculosis, 7 years for multiple sclerosis, any time for ALS.
va.gov/disability/eligibility/illnesses-within-one-year-of-discharge
- Toxic exposure — conditions covered under the PACT Act, Agent Orange and burn pit rules.
- Former prisoner of war — POW presumptions.
Check this list before you pay anyone for a private nexus opinion. If your condition is
presumptive, that opinion is money you did not have to spend.
✅ Check presumptive first. Then pay.
Build it
Six ways to prove what was never written down
- Lay statements (buddy letters) — from anyone who saw what happened or watched you struggle,
during or after service. VA Form 21-10210, Lay/Witness Statement. Under
38 CFR 3.159(a)(2), lay evidence counts when it comes from a person with knowledge of the
facts, describing what an ordinary person can observe and describe — no specialized education,
training or experience required.
va.gov/find-forms/about-form-21-10210
- Your own statement — your symptoms, when they started, what they stop you doing.
VA Form 21-4138, Statement in Support of Claim. VA also accepts a statement on blank paper.
va.gov/find-forms/about-form-21-4138
- Post-service medical records — your civilian and VA records now still support the claim.
- Continuity of symptoms — showing the symptoms ran from service to now is strong supporting
evidence. Under 38 CFR 3.303(b), continuity is what VA looks for when a condition noted in
service was not shown to be chronic.
- Service records — not just medical. Injuries, incidents, deployments, MOS duties, awards,
unit records, exposures.
- A medical nexus opinion — a doctor stating your current condition is linked to service.
Strong evidence, and not needed for a presumptive condition.
✅ Six doors. You only need the ones that fit.
Your right
You do not chase federal records alone
VA has a duty to assist you. Use it.
Under 38 CFR 3.159, VA "will make as many requests
as are necessary to obtain relevant records from a Federal department or agency" — that includes your
service treatment records and records held at VA and other federal facilities — until it gets them or
determines they do not exist. VA will also help request private provider records if you name the
provider and the dates.
Ask in writing, in the claim itself, and keep a copy. Name every provider and every date range
you can. VA cannot request what you never identified.
✅ Ask for the help. It is owed.
Back pay
If your records turn up later
This one is worth years of money and almost nobody knows it.
If service department records that already existed are
later added to your file — your STRs, unit records, or newly declassified material — VA must
reconsider the claim under 38 CFR 3.156(c). If it then grants, the effective date goes back to
your original claim, not to the date the records surfaced.
When you send late-arriving service records, say in writing that you are asking for
reconsideration under 38 CFR 3.156(c). Put it in the cover letter. That sentence is the
difference between a grant from today and a grant with years of back pay.
✅ Old records, original date.
The exam
The C&P exam, and the trap in missing it
VA orders an exam "only if we need more information to decide your claim." Many claims
are decided on the evidence already in the file.
- If you get one: be honest and thorough. Describe your worst days, not your best.
- The examiner is not your doctor. They do not treat you, refer you or prescribe.
Miss it without good cause and the rule depends on your claim type. On a first-time claim,
38 CFR 3.655(b) says VA rates it on whatever evidence is already in your file. On a
supplemental claim or a claim for a higher rating, the claim shall be DENIED outright. Good
cause includes illness or hospitalization, a death in your immediate Family, and similar
circumstances — the list is not closed. Call and reschedule. Do not simply not show up.
va.gov/disability/va-claim-exam
✅ Reschedule beats no-show, every time.
If denied
Deadlines that cost money
A denial is not the end. But two of these run out.
- Supplemental Claim — VA Form 20-0995. Runs on new and relevant evidence, which is exactly
what this page teaches you to build. There is no absolute deadline to file. But file within one
year of the decision or you lose your original effective date. Under 38 CFR 3.2500,
continuously pursuing the claim by filing a review option within one year of each decision is what
protects your back pay; file later and your effective date resets to the day VA receives the
supplemental claim.
va.gov/decision-reviews/supplemental-claim
- Higher-Level Review — one year from the decision.
- Board Appeal — one year from the decision.
- Contested claims — 60 days, and only to the Board.
The trap: a veteran spends 18 months building buddy letters and a nexus opinion because he was
told the supplemental claim has "no clock." He wins — and forfeits every month of back pay to his
original claim. File inside the year, then keep adding evidence.
✅ File inside the year. Build after.
Help, and fees
Who can help you file — and who may charge
- An accredited VSO representative is always free. Recognized organizations and their
representatives may not receive fees at all.
- An accredited attorney or claims agent may charge — but only for representation provided
after VA issues notice of its initial decision on the claim. Under 38 CFR 14.636, a
fee up to 20% of past-due benefits is presumed reasonable; more than one-third is presumed
unreasonable.
- Verify accreditation before you sign anything — a power of attorney or a fee agreement.
Start at
va.gov/disability/get-help-filing-claim.
Warning sign: anyone demanding an up-front fee before VA has issued an initial decision.
Veterans with undocumented or denied claims are the exact people unaccredited fee-charging
consultants come looking for.
✅ Free help exists. Use it first.
Before you spend
Two things that stop a claim cold
- Character of discharge. A dishonorable discharge bars compensation. If yours is other than
honorable, ask VA for a character of discharge determination — that question is decided
separately and it does not automatically end your claim. Settle that before you pay for a nexus
opinion.
- The 10% threshold on the one-year presumptive route. The condition has to be at least 10%
disabling inside the window, or that route does not apply and you are back to proving the link.
Questions on either one: call VA at 800-827-1000, or sit down with a free accredited VSO
representative.
✅ Check the gate before you buy the ticket.