C File Request

[USMC_VET]

So i had requested my c file in june. 

I recently request an update via IRIS (3 weeks ago) and this was their response

"Your Privacy Act Request submitted on June 1, 2015, is pending and our records show correspondence was sent to you on June 16, 2015, acknowledging the receipt of your request.

 

At this time we are unable to provide a specific time frame for completion of your Privacy Act Request.

 

Please keep in mind that all FOIA requests are completed on a first come, first serve basis. The law requires a response within 20 working days of the date that the request is received by the custodian of the record. Within that time, the custodian of the record is required to at least advise the requester VA has received their request, and whether VA has any information responsive to the request. If feasible, the requested information will also be released within 20 working days. If there is a backlog of pending requests, it will take longer to provide a final response."

 

Now I am aware that if you have a pending claim that will hold it up, but they did not mention that, they mentioned the "first come, first serve basis" and "feasible" in regards to the 20 days.

what is your opinion

[bluevet]

So i had requested my c file in june. 

I recently request an update via IRIS (3 weeks ago) and this was their response

"Your Privacy Act Request submitted on June 1, 2015, is pending and our records show correspondence was sent to you on June 16, 2015, acknowledging the receipt of your request.

 

At this time we are unable to provide a specific time frame for completion of your Privacy Act Request.

 

Please keep in mind that all FOIA requests are completed on a first come, first serve basis. The law requires a response within 20 working days of the date that the request is received by the custodian of the record. Within that time, the custodian of the record is required to at least advise the requester VA has received their request, and whether VA has any information responsive to the request. If feasible, the requested information will also be released within 20 working days. If there is a backlog of pending requests, it will take longer to provide a final response."

 

Now I am aware that if you have a pending claim that will hold it up, but they did not mention that, they mentioned the "first come, first serve basis" and "feasible" in regards to the 20 days.

what is your opinion

Things are changing at the VA. My claim, which was all paper 1 1/2 years ago has now been converted to an electronic c-file. I recently requested a copy of a C&P and it arrived in about 25 days, on CD. Once your c-file has been converted, having a pending claim should no longer cause a delay in processing FOIA requests. Since you requested your entire file, I would imagine it may take longer than it did for me to get a single document. When I requested all of my medical records from my c-file 2 years ago, it took 4 months to receive them, all on paper. It could be your c-file has not completely scanned and converted to an electronic record, in which case it may be a while yet before you receive it.

[Buck52]

Do they remove hard copies of the c-file and send it some where else to get it converted? if they do looks like they would let the vet know this?

if not then whats the hold -up?

when a veteran request his c-file for a claim   it should be the VA Response ability  to get it to him as soon as they can.

 

jmo

 

.................Buck

[broncovet]

You need to "ask someone else" in VA. (Try requesting in on IRIS, for example)  Keep remembering VA is not a unified body but a group of employees who act independently and largely without accountability. 

I recommend you go to "release of information" at your local VA and ask for those records.  Its true this wont be your entire cfile, but it should be the medical evidence, and hopefully you have copies of your decisions. 

But, KEEP on the RO for your cfile.  The reason is, at least my Cfile contains "notes" written by VA employees. 

Those "notes" can be "killer" evidence.  In other words its gonna be very difficult for VA to take a position in your appeals that conflicts what a VA employee wrote down in your notes. 

I will be holding Va accountable for these notes.  Example:

My old  VARO director wrote, that a 2004 21-4138 was "interpreted" as a benefit claim.  However, another VA employee had written in my notes that my 4138 was a NOD.   The VA posits that this is a claim, but that is in conflict with another VA employee who says its a NOD. 

The "threshold" to qualify as a nod is low, and the VA is required to "ask the Veteran for clarification" if the issues are unclear in the NOD.  This is written in M21. 

You see, the VA is trying to weasel out of the 2004 NOD (which they ignored) , because that means I get benefits back to 2002, and they are fighting that.   The 2004 NOD could be "outcome determinative".  

Edited September 9, 2015 by broncovet
correct spelling, add a point ommitted.

[USMC_VET]

I have already requested my full medical file to include imaging, notes, exams, etc from all thre vamc's ive been too.  have received one.  My cfile request is still on hold but is request blue sheets, post its and any notations along with paper. 

I was made well aware that the VA is not unified in earlier dealings, especially when i filed a claim in the state i live now and it was adjudicated (along with a scheduled dro hearing) in the state i lived in 3 years and two states ago.  I had requested that my decision be adjudicated in my new state (midwest).  the decision was issued from my state, but when i filed a NOD and requested a new CP exam and DRO hearing they scheduled it in my old state (alaska).  i got the letter on a wednesday evening letting me know my dro hearing was on friday morning...in alaska...so that worked well.

In the state i lived in after i moved out of alaska, i gave up on trying to get seen at the hospital there, every cp exam and every hospital appointment i would request...i would get a letter or call from alaska.  i would inform them i no longer lived there, to fix their records there. they said they would do just that, i also called my new states VAMC and asked them to fix THEIR records to have my appointments there, they said they would, i would file the correct form.  then a month later, same thing...

[HorizontalMike]

Do they remove hard copies of the c-file and send it some where else to get it converted? if they do looks like they would let the vet know this?

if not then whats the hold -up?

when a veteran request his c-file for a claim   it should be the VA Response ability  to get it to him as soon as they can.

jmo.................Buck

Hey Buck,

The VA took my medical STRs from the NPRC in order to digitize them at the local Houston VARO, into my C-File.  Took them just short of ONE year.  Once they had them digitized.

AFTER my C-FILE was digitized, the VARO turned right around and printed out a hard copy of my C-FILE and snail-mailed the hard copy of my C-FILE to my lawyer, who then had to RE-SCAN all ~1,400 pages in order to send me a CD digitized version.  

Do understand that every time a document is re-scanned and printed (=one generation), it loses much of it's original resolution.  Three or four generations of the "scan&print" sequence, results in documents that often are NOT readable, except for the VARO that got to scan only the "original" documents ONCE (and they only access that original scanned document).  This is NOT the VA "helping" the vet with their claims, regardless of what they claim.

 

[green]

I requested my C-file the beginning of December, I have not yet received the copy.

 

Green