A Call About A C&p Exam

[Steppenwolf]

A letter was sent to me informing me that a C&P was going to be scheduled. A person calls me to schedule but can't tell me when, what month, what year, nothing except that there will be two and not on the same day. Will it be the same week? month? anything, can you tell me anything? Can i request the C&P where i live now? Yes you can but you need to call the regional office there.

Knowing that Florida told me that my travel board hearing would take 4 years and when i had it transerfered to CT it took 4 months i'm worried about requestion it elesewhere but if it's in CT i will have to say with a friend, motel, or sleep in my car on my property and shower at the Y.

i call her back with-in 24 hours, less actually to tell her i'll probably stay with CT. She doesn't answer the phone and never returns my call. Each day that i call i also place a call to the PA who never calls back. Today i place the same two calls again with the video tape running and the speak on, then call the operator who puts me through to a different PA. She calls the comp dept and tells me that i need to call the regional office to ask that my case be reopened?????? WHAT????? And then to reschedule my C&P. Miraculously i reach my SO who tells me that she is wrong and my case does not have to be reopened just ask for reschude. But the 800 number goes to the state that i'm in and the SO i speak with has no clue abut anything.

Can i request a private C&P?

That no one can tell me anything about how long a C&P will take do i want to risk being delayed another 3 or 4 years?

i also asked my SO why he never suggested pension? By the questions he asked he doesn't know me at all. Wasn't sure when i served, if i had an honorable discharge, if i worked or had assests. The he says: Don't know why I never suggested it sounds like your a perfect canidate.

i sometime get the feeling that everytime i go to one of the people or agencies that are suppose to be helping me that i'm going before a firing squad.

So this will be yet another who day this week that i do nothing but make phone calls or trips to the VA and come back dumber than when i left.

Someone tell me something that makes sense.

[Ricky]

I do not understand your location situation but assume that when you began your claim you were in CT and now live in FL.

It appears that your questions and revelations to the clerk about now living in Fl caused them to return the C&P request to the VARO and notifying them that you no longer live in their service area.

As you can see and as has been stated on Hadit many times you have to be careful when dealing with the VA as they are easy to confuse. They try to do the right thing but their confusion causes their efforts to go off the deep end.

I suspect that a possible course of action will be that the CT VARO will notify you that they have been informed you no longer live in their service area and intend to forward your file to the VARO that services the state you now live in. They may or may not ask for confirmation from you. As all of the RO's are over-run any excuse to move your file will be a blessing to the RO transfering it.

No you can not request a private exam. Well you can but the only thing that will do is give the rater holding your file a good laugh.

Since you have your file in CT and live in FL (at least I think this is the situation) I have to assume that you had already thought it out and decided that claims processing in CT was more beneficial to you therefore, you accepted the requirements/responsibilities of such a situation (long travel for exams, no place to stay etc.....). If this is the case I would work closely with your SO or call the RO where your claim is ASAP and explain that there was a mix up and ask them to reschedule your exam.

Not trying to be hard on you but we vets sometimes do things to ourselves which only serves to confuse the VA (and easy to confuse they are). If you do not get on top of this situation very quickly you stand to add quite a bit of time to the processing of your claim and if they start moving it around the possibility that some or all of it may become lost in the shuffle.

[Rockhound]

Question for clarification: Is your claim being processed by the FL VA or the CT VA?

Is it only that your travel board is schedule in CT?

Rockhound Rider

[yoggie2]

I transferred from Fl to Indiana and had to reinvent the wheel all over again, I didn't loose my effective date but I did however have to wait 1 and 1/2 years after getting transferred. I am willing to guess that they know you have moved and put a hold on things till they figure out where you are or if your going to pick up you claim in your new state. YOU WILL be moved to the back of the line in that new state and if you decide to stay with that state they will randomly schedule your C&P's if they are different. I have seen folks get them set for the same day but I know FL is very bad state to file in and I don't know much about CT maybe someone can chime in. But I would say its safe to say you need to file in the state you live in because of the medical and and evidence purposes...hope some of this helps..

[mike/3/8/cav]

I transferred from Fl to Indiana and had to reinvent the wheel all over again, I didn't loose my effective date but I did however have to wait 1 and 1/2 years after getting transferred. I am willing to guess that they know you have moved and put a hold on things till they figure out where you are or if your going to pick up you claim in your new state. YOU WILL be moved to the back of the line in that new state and if you decide to stay with that state they will randomly schedule your C&P's if they are different. I have seen folks get them set for the same day but I know FL is very bad state to file in and I don't know much about CT maybe someone can chime in. But I would say its safe to say you need to file in the state you live in because of the medical and and evidence purposes...hope some of this helps..

This kinda concerns me as we are thinking of relocating to Washington state to be closer to VA and other med facilities. I don't want to get all screwed up and start again with new exams and whatnot.

[yoggie2]

This kinda concerns me as we are thinking of relocating to Washington state to be closer to VA and other med facilities. I don't want to get all screwed up and start again with new exams and whatnot.

Yeah I know it sucks, it set me back a year and by the time I moved to my new state. Got through there system I had waited closed to 2 and 1/2 years from my original claim was filed but I had to move. I did get put at the back of the line and my file had all evidence gathered in the c-file and by the time the VARO in Indy went through it they just breezed through it sent me to 2 C&P's and denied every single claim within 2 and 1/2 months. They did however apologize for screwing up my claim (was edited out of my DRO Hearing transcript) and swear they will get to it with in a year. I feel for ya it put us in a very bad way back-pay or not it like to tore us a part. The ironic thing is when I didn't know crapolla I just mailed it in and file for SSD at the same time and waited on my original claim that was date stamped 5 months later. I had been through the VARO comp process and denied filed an NOD got a DRO hearing a year later and five days from the Hearing I had my ALJ for SSD and the judge made a bench decision on the same issues that I filed for SC through the VARO. You take or request a copy of your c-file if you don't already have one. I just wish I had found hadit a year before I was just drifting around aimlessly not know anything and its very easy to take advantage of someone who knows nothing and the VA knows it, so it could be easy for things to get lost like very important things seems to be the case... Good luck my friend Yog

[mike/3/8/cav]

Yeah I know it sucks, it set me back a year and by the time I moved to my new state. Got through there system I had waited closed to 2 and 1/2 years from my original claim was filed but I had to move. I did get put at the back of the line and my file had all evidence gathered in the c-file and by the time the VARO in Indy went through it they just breezed through it sent me to 2 C&P's and denied every single claim within 2 and 1/2 months. They did however apologize for screwing up my claim (was edited out of my DRO Hearing transcript) and swear they will get to it with in a year. I feel for ya it put us in a very bad way back-pay or not it like to tore us a part. The ironic thing is when I didn't know crapolla I just mailed it in and file for SSD at the same time and waited on my original claim that was date stamped 5 months later. I had been through the VARO comp process and denied filed an NOD got a DRO hearing a year later and five days from the Hearing I had my ALJ for SSD and the judge made a bench decision on the same issues that I filed for SC through the VARO. You take or request a copy of your c-file if you don't already have one. I just wish I had found hadit a year before I was just drifting around aimlessly not know anything and its very easy to take advantage of someone who knows nothing and the VA knows it, so it could be easy for things to get lost like very important things seems to be the case... Good luck my friend Yog

Thanks Yog,

Maybe my best bet would be to stick it out here for another year. I'm sure I will have another PTSD exam within the 2 year time zone if I understand the system. When they decided on my sc at 50% last (I think September) they said an exam would be scheduled in the future. And I am still waiting for the exam for Gulf War Registery. I am still new to all this but trying to learn and do the right things. I appreciate everyone who has given me advice here on hadit. I'm learning, it just takes me awile to catch on. I just don't like to learn by making mistakes.