Going To Waco

[Ret.Navy]

Wanted to know if I need to make an appointment to visit my RO to discuss my claim, or if that is even possible. No body knows what is going on with my claim. Put in an Inquiry Jan 10, and no response. Original claim date (Jun 5, 2010), EBenefits says waiting on info from me (status since Sep 2011), 1-800 number says all information has been gathered and is waiting to go to rater (status since Nov 2011), and my lawyer (last contact August 2011) says he was negotating with a rater viewing my claim that would mean the increase that we are looking for and once approved we could drop the appeal. Will driving to Waco get me an honest answer on where my claim is?

[carlie]

Wanted to know if I need to make an appointment to visit my RO to discuss my claim, or if that is even possible. No body knows what is going on with my claim. Put in an Inquiry Jan 10, and no response. Original claim date (Jun 5, 2010), EBenefits says waiting on info from me (status since Sep 2011), 1-800 number says all information has been gathered and is waiting to go to rater (status since Nov 2011), and my lawyer (last contact August 2011) says he was negotating with a rater viewing my claim that would mean the increase that we are looking for and once approved we could drop the appeal. Will driving to Waco get me an honest answer on where my claim is?

Because - YOU HAVE AN ATTORNEY - I personally would not visit my VARO unless I spoke with

my attorney about it first.

JMHO

[Pete53]

I agree with Carlie but you can go to Waco and walk in and see a VA Councellor. You can also see one at Dallas VAMC as a walkin they are in the hallway that sort of separes Bldg 1 from Bldg 2

Good Luck

[Teac]

Waco has a fairly new regional office, and they do allows walk-in's. My experience when I visited their office in 2005 was that they did not have ready access to my file. In fact, all they could do for me was to pull up some computer screens and answer some very basic questions. Before I went to the RO, I had requested an appointment by letter to review my file, since I never received a response I assumed that my requested date had been approved... it wasn't... so before you go ( if you go) make sure you have an actual appointment if you plan on getting any valid answers or just want to see your claims/pension file.

[71M10]

I am with Carlie on this one.

If you have an attorney, I would specifically ask them if they mind you going in and talking to them.

My guess would be they don't want you going it to see them.

You have to ask yourself, what will I really gain by going to Waco? Not what I hope to gain but what will I really gain.

Best regards

[Susan]

All good advice here. I went to the Waco RO last summer. In July, I posted my experience on the RO forum here. Each state with City is found there. Texas / Waco reply is found on page two. Before going, I had asked what to expect at the RO.

It was good for me to know there would be a Security check and metal detector. Since you have an attorney, it would be important to get their approval first. I suggested to the attorney helping me that I could mail or hand deliver some documents. They approved of my going. I didn't tell the RO counselor everything that I knew already.

The counselor would only look at the computer screen and discourage me. Either I knew more than the counselor or they failed to help me. I believe they failed to help me on purpose. They also would not allow me to see the C file. I am the surviving spouse and had remarried. I am still waiting to see the C file.

This was how I felt after making the trip. Quoted from my reply here at the RO forum:

" I will say that the counselor was discouraging to me. Some of their remarks and the automatic discouragement were the only bad part of the experience."

Happy to say that five months later Service Connection and retro were awarded. Even though that Counselor told me that there was no hope and my claim looked "scarey".

[Ret.Navy]

Spoke with my lawyer today, and He told me "Your claim has stalled somewhere, and Waco is not giving any insight to where your claim might be, or what stage of the process it is in. When I have more infomation I'll get back with you."

Thanks for the responses, Lawyer also told me that there was no point in me going to Waco, because I am probably not going to learn any new information. He also told me he still hasn't recieved the copy of my C-file that he requested last year.

I don't know where my claim is, I just hope it's not in the shredder.