Where you are

Your first VA claim

You've never filed. Good. You're starting clean, and you can do this in the right order. This page lays out that order, rule by rule.

Every condition on this site has a free page under Decisions, built from what the Board actually did. Nothing to sign up for.

A claim is evidence, not a form

The form on VA.gov is the last thing you finish. What the VA decides on is the record: service records, medical records, statements from people who know you, and the exam. Service connection means the evidence shows that an injury or disease that led to a disability began during service. If it began before service, the evidence has to show that service made it worse.

The three things the VA needs

For each condition, the rater looks for three things. The same three appear in the rule that tells the VA when it has to order an exam.

A current problem with a name. A diagnosis, or persistent or recurrent symptoms in the record.
Something that happened in service. An injury, illness, or exposure, or a presumption that stands in for it.
A link between the two. The VA calls this the nexus.

Miss any one and the claim fails.

Step 1. Lock in your date, then gather records

Before you request a single record, put in an intent to file. If your complete claim reaches VA within one year of the intent to file, it counts as filed the day the intent to file arrived. Lock in your date, below, shows three ways to put one in.

Request your service treatment records, personnel file, VA treatment records, and records from any private doctor who treated the condition. The VA has a duty to help. It requests service and other federal records itself and makes reasonable efforts to get private ones. For anything it doesn't already know about, you have to point the way. Tell the VA who holds the records, the dates, and the condition. Do that work before you send the complete claim.

Then see a private doctor before you send the complete claim. Ask for a written opinion on whether the condition is at least as likely as not related to service. That phrase matches the VA's standard, evidence in approximate balance. Also ask the doctor to fill out the VA's Disability Benefits Questionnaire, or DBQ, for the condition, if VA publishes one.

For a joint or the spine, ask for a goniometer, the tool that measures how far a joint bends. The rating schedule calls it indispensable in VA's own exams. A VA joint exam also has to measure again after repeated movement, note where pain starts, and record what a flare-up takes away. Ask your doctor for the same. An adequate private report can be accepted for rating without a VA exam. If it falls short, the VA orders its own. Gather your documents covers the DBQ and the joint exam in full.

Thin service records are not the end. A disease diagnosed after discharge can still be service connected when all the evidence shows it began in service. When the evidence is in approximate balance, reasonable doubt is resolved in your favor, even without official records.

Steps 2 and 3. Choose conditions and find their ratings

Back pain is a symptom, and the rating schedule doesn't rate it. It rates lumbosacral strain, diagnostic code 5237. That rating turns on how far you bend forward, your combined range of motion, and whether spasm or guarding changes your walk or spine shape. Find your condition's code first, so you know what the exam has to measure. If your condition sits between two ratings and more nearly matches the higher one, the higher one applies.

Next, look for other problems the first condition caused. The rule on secondary conditions covers a new disability caused by a service-connected one. It also covers a condition that a service-connected one made worse. Only the added harm counts, not the normal course of the disease. Medical records have to show how bad the condition was before the worsening, or failing that, the earliest records after it began. A bad knee can pull the hip and back along with it. If a doctor connects them, those are claims of their own.

Every condition on this site has a free page under Decisions, built from what the Board actually did. Nothing to sign up for.

Step 4. Presumptives, the shortcut many miss

A presumption supplies the link. You show the qualifying service and the diagnosis. The rule then stands in for the nexus, unless the VA has affirmative evidence the condition came from somewhere else.

Presumptions cover chronic diseases such as arthritis, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Most have to reach a rating of at least 10 percent within a year of separation. Hansen's disease and tuberculosis get three years, and multiple sclerosis gets seven. Other rules cover herbicides, time as a prisoner of war, the water at Camp Lejeune, and burn pits and other toxins under the PACT Act. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is presumed whenever it appears after discharge, for any veteran with 90 days or more of continuous active service.

Gulf War illness has a deadline. An undiagnosed illness, or a chronic illness with many symptoms medicine can't explain, must have appeared during service in the Southwest Asia theater. Otherwise it must reach 10 percent by December 31, 2026. VA has extended that date repeatedly since 2001. Check the current rule on eCFR, the government's online copy of federal regulations, before you rely on it.

Presumptive conditions gives each rule with its places and dates. VA lists the PACT Act conditions on its PACT Act page.

Lock in your date

The date matters. An award on a first claim generally runs from the date the VA receives the claim or the date entitlement arose, whichever is later. If the claim arrives within one year of separation, that date moves back to the day after separation. If entitlement arose later than that, the later date applies. An intent to file holds the receipt date for one year while you gather evidence.

The rule gives three ways to do it. A saved VA.gov application counts, and so does the signed and dated intent to file form, VA Form 21-0966. So does telling a VA employee who is designated to take it, in person or by phone at 800-827-1000. It counts when that employee records the date VA received your intent. If you have no VA.gov login and no printer, the phone call is the one you can make today. Whichever way you choose, it has to name the benefit you want, in this case compensation. It does not need to name a condition.

Why the VA orders an exam

Say your file shows a diagnosis, an event in service, and some sign they may be connected. If there isn't enough medical evidence to decide, the VA has to schedule an exam or get an opinion. The VA calls it a compensation and pension exam, or C&P exam. You must go. Miss it without good cause, and a first claim is rated on what's already in the file. The examiner measures against the criteria from step 2. Each disability is viewed in relation to its history, so tell yours. Describe your worst days, honestly.

The mistakes first-timers make

Filing bare. Sending the complete claim with nothing attached. The intent to file is different. It holds your date for one year while you gather evidence. The VA's duty to assist means it helps you get records. It does not build your case.
Claiming the symptom instead of the condition. "Knee pain" is a symptom. Patellofemoral pain syndrome is a diagnosis the schedule can rate, under the knee codes, by measured limitation of motion or instability.
Skipping the mental health piece. Depression or anxiety caused by chronic pain, or by any other service-connected condition, is a separate disability under the rule on secondary conditions. It's rated on its own. Mental health caused by your conditions explains the claim.
Exaggerating. It gets caught and costs you credibility on every issue.

Where claims are filed

You can file on VA.gov, or by mailing, faxing, or handing in VA Form 21-526EZ. You can also file through an accredited representative. A Veterans Service Organization (VSO) representative charges nothing. An accredited agent or attorney may generally charge a fee only for work after the VA has decided the claim once. The two narrow exceptions are a home loan case and a fee paid by a disinterested third party. This site teaches. It does not prepare or file claims. You file, with a record you built. To read decisions today, open the decision pages for your condition.

Start with what the Board decided about your condition

Every condition has a free page here, built from the Board's own decisions: what it granted, what it denied, and what it sent back. Read the one for your condition before you file. You file your own claim, on VA.gov or through a representative.

See the packs

Sources

What service connection means, 38 CFR 3.303(a) and (d).
The VA's duty to assist, and when it orders an exam, 38 CFR 3.159(c) and (c)(4).
The rule on an intent to file, 38 CFR 3.155(b), including (b)(1)(i) to (iii) and (b)(2).
Reasonable doubt, 38 CFR 3.102.
Joint exams, 38 CFR 4.40, 4.45, 4.46 and 4.59, as the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims read them in DeLuca v. Brown and Sharp v. Shulkin, and as the DBQ form asks.
Private reports, VA exams, and missing one, 38 CFR 3.326(a) and (c), and 3.655(b).
Spine and knee ratings, and the higher of two, 38 CFR 4.7, and 4.71a, diagnostic code 5237.
The rule on secondary conditions, 38 CFR 3.310(a) and (b).
Presumptions and their time limits, 38 CFR 3.307 and 3.309, including 3.307(a)(3).
The PACT Act presumptions, 38 U.S.C. 1120.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 38 CFR 3.318.
Gulf War illness, 38 CFR 3.317(a)(1)(i).
When an award starts, and the year after separation, 38 CFR 3.400 and 3.400(b)(2)(i).
Each disability in its history, 38 CFR 4.1.
Representatives and fees, 38 CFR 14.629 and 14.636(c) and (d).

This page is education, not legal advice. Rules quoted are from 38 CFR Parts 3 and 4, as published on the government's eCFR website. Board decisions are public records, linked at their source.