Change Of Address !

[bm6546]

I have recently moved to my permanent address (3 months ago). My appeal is currently at the BVA in Washington. Should I send my change of address to the BVA and to my VARO in Oakland or both? And should I send this by certified mail or snail mail? Will I receive a comfirmation from the VA that they have received my new change of address?

As always, Thanks in advance.

Brian

[sharon]

Call the 800# and they can change your address. Make sure you let them know you have an appeal. It is a different system. Follow up the call with a hard copy. You can send it snail mail. If you have a service officer have them send in the information so that they have a back-up copy in their file.

[LarryJ]

Better you changing the address and letting the VA know about, rather than the VA changing MY address and NOT letting me know about it (long story short: the schmucks simply started making up addresses that sounded kinda like the real address that they had on beau coup forms that I had filled out and sent to them, thereby hoping that I wouldn't get the SOC's, SSOC's, C&P notifications and other little unimportant notices........if my mailperson hadn't been my ex, I'd STILL be fighting the VA and wondering WHY).

Yup, much better the other way around, whereby YOU tell THEM where you live!

[broncovet]

Your address is a tool the VA uses to manipulate and deny about 17% of VA claims. They send your C and P request to your old address, and they get away with that because every department in the VA (Comp and Pen, Voc Rehab, VHA, VBA, Insurance, etc) is different and they dont share your address with them, so you have to change your address in every single department.

The VAOIG explains here how the VA manipulates this to deny claims:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfjun09/nf062609-1.htm

Its a trap they use to deny about 17% of the Veterans claims. Dont let them do that to you.

[Ricky]

Brian,

First print out a VA Form 20-572 from the VA website. Fill out items 1-11 and sign it.

Prepare a simple cover letter stating that you have moved and are attaching the VA Form 20-572. Send one copy to your the VARO that your claims folder is at; one copy to the new VARO (if you moved to another state); one copy to the BVA and one copy to the VAMC that you use (normally the ROI office/records room). Then call the 1-800 number to verify that it has been changed; call the BVA to insure they received the updated info and call the VAMC to make sure the change has occured.

I know it seems a bit excessive but that is what you have to do since you have a pending appeal. You gotta stay on top of it to insure that you do not miss any correspondence from the BVA indicating they need info for your claim or that a C&P has been scheduled to support your appeal.