Claim Sent To Washington, Dc !

[bm6546]

Haven't been on Hadit for several months. Please forgive me if I am beating a dead horse, but can someone tell me approx how long my claim might be stuck in Washington DC. Is there an area on Hadit that I can research this subject. My claim was sent to Washington in January 2009. I originally filed my claim in June 2006. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.

Brian

[john999]

Carlie

Excuse me on that "kill a man" statement. I listen to all these old blues albums and they are always talking about the "blues can kill a man" etc. The singers were all men so what can you imagine.

[allan]

Brian,

I'm curious.

Have you ever requested and received a complete copy of your C-file?

Between the BVA, St Petersburg and the AMC. They are notorious for loosing evidence to delay claims.

You can fax your evidence to who you pin down has your c-file. They all have fax numbers. VARO's, AMC & the BVA.

If your C-File is in DC. You can fax it to your NSO there & ask that it be hand carried & time stamped to whoever has it, AMC or BVA.

They still lost(?) my evidence.

If you want all of this to burn a hole in your brain & stomach, than worry over how long it's taking. Thats all it will accomplish.

Call every few weeks to find out when you've been assigned to a rating officer.

It will likely be 3 to 6 months.

Your claim can take 6 to 18 months to be processed, after your assigned to someone.

If the AMC/BVA decides you need another C&P, it can take a year to get one and another 6 months to have another rater assigned & make a decision.

Pinning them down on whether they received evidence is a hard one unless you send it through your NSO. Even then it can fall through the cracks.

When you have no more evidence to submit to the BVA, you will recieve a "FINAL" decision.

Once you recieve a final, your case can go to CAVC if you request it & than you can hire an attorney to take it from there.

If I could have hired an attorney in 1975, I would have had this done with decades ago.

[bm6546]

WOW !!

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Now I am even more confused, LOL. Just kidding. To answer the question on whether I have received a copy of my C file, the answer is yes. It shows that I was discharged back in 1967 with a heart condition. They medically discharged me and I was service connected at that time and I received 10% SC for approx 1 year. I stopped receiving it after 1 year because they said I was working full time and didn't need it anymore. Like I was going to live on $27.00 a month. Since then my heart condition has gotten worse and I had a heart attack 3 1/2 years ago and have not been able to work since then. I have been denied twice by the RO in Oakland Calif and my claim was sent to the BVA in Washington. I applied for and received my SSDI, on the first try.

Approx 1 month before my claim was sent to the BVA I submitted new evidence to the RO in Oakland with a "Statement In Support of Claim". My main concern is I want to make sure that the new evidence was also transferred to the BVA or did the RO misplace it or it didn't get sent. I would sure be very disapointed if I waited for 1 to 3 years and then find out that the BVA never even received it. I really think that this new evidence can only help my case.

I need to find out somehow if that new evidence is in the hands of the BVA or not. My VSO tells me that she is pretty sure they have it. Well, "pretty sure" is not good enough for me. I would rather take the chance of prolonging my decision by having the BVA research my file to see if it is there or not, rather than find out it is still sitting somewhere in the RO in Oakland. I am starting to lose my trust with any of these VA depts because of the many stories that I read about, especially by the people on Hadit, of the VA losing files and records.

Sorry if this is so long, but I really am getting frustrated with the whole thing.

Thanks again, you guys and gals are all great.

Brian

[allan]

"Pretty sure" is what you tend to hear from a ten year old. That's where the, "better check light" comes on in my head. Because I could bet money it wasn't done.

The only real way to make sure something has been done on your claim is to do it yourself.

Put no trust in the VA.

Make sure to send US Postal Returned Reciept Requested. Or equivalent when you send anything to the DVA, for any benefit.

Fax's are also good. They keep an electronic record of what, who & when it was sent.

[carlie]

WOW !!

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Now I am even more confused, LOL. Just kidding. To answer the question on whether I have received a copy of my C file, the answer is yes. It shows that I was discharged back in 1967 with a heart condition. They medically discharged me and I was service connected at that time and I received 10% SC for approx 1 year. I stopped receiving it after 1 year because they said I was working full time and didn't need it anymore. Like I was going to live on $27.00 a month. Since then my heart condition has gotten worse and I had a heart attack 3 1/2 years ago and have not been able to work since then. I have been denied twice by the RO in Oakland Calif and my claim was sent to the BVA in Washington. I applied for and received my SSDI, on the first try.

bm6546 -

I would think that even though VA stopped paying the 10 % to you, your heart condition

still remained SC'd.

Down the road you might want to re-visit the issue of the reduction of your 10 %

compensation as it may not have been a legal reduction.

10 % compensation may not seem like much but if the reduction wasn't done properly

and you were to get that 10 % comp retro'd back these 40 years, it adds up to a

real nice amount. Maybe someone else will chime in on this.

Approx 1 month before my claim was sent to the BVA I submitted new evidence to the RO in Oakland with a "Statement In Support of Claim". My main concern is I want to make sure that the new evidence was also transferred to the BVA or did the RO misplace it or it didn't get sent. I would sure be very disapointed if I waited for 1 to 3 years and then find out that the BVA never even received it. I really think that this new evidence can only help my case.

I need to find out somehow if that new evidence is in the hands of the BVA or not. My VSO tells me that she is pretty sure they have it. Well, "pretty sure" is not good enough for me. I would rather take the chance of prolonging my decision by having the BVA research my file to see if it is there or not, rather than find out it is still sitting somewhere in the RO in Oakland. I am starting to lose my trust with any of these VA depts because of the many stories that I read about, especially by the people on Hadit, of the VA losing files and records.

I would send the BVA a copy of this as I do not feel they can or will take the time to

look through your file to tell you Yes we have it or No we don't have that.

jmho,

carlie