New Foia/privacy Act Procedures At Ros

[Ascomdepot68]

According to a letter I received today:

"As of March 3, 2014 future request with some exceptions for FOIA/PA actions received at the Atlanta Regional Office AFTER March 3, 2014 are forwarded to ST. Louis Records Management Center for scanning and processing on disc.You will be notified by that office to your request if your request is in this category."

Exact spelling and grammar of letter.

Apparently applies to all RO's. I had a hint this was what they were doing since May 2014 when my Congressman's aide was told by the

Congressional liaison at the Atlanta RO "we don't do that here anymore" and a C file disc was sent from RMC at St Louis.

I am not sure if the actual documents are mailed to RMC from the RO for putting on disc or if the documents are copied from electronic records at RMC.

I do know that that they still managed to lose 65 documents and there are still several other Veteran's documents co mingled with my records on the disc.

More efficient? Who knows. More likely to take more time and involve more handling which increases errors? Yes.

I do know that only letter and legal sized documents were on records received. Crucial maps sized 2'X3' and 2'X2' were missing.

Also another FOIA/PA "claim" popped up on eBenefits for me today. And low and behold this time they did list an expected date of

completion as 120-187 days out. FOIA supposed to be done in no longer than 30 days! No real time limit on PA items. I have an

idea though that this might be a VCAA matter. The VA is placing some requests of assorted types under the "FOIA/PA" as they

say they don't have a "button" for everything so they just use that.

Another thing I have to discuss with Secretary McDonald

[NavyWife]

Thanks Notorious Kelly & Chuck75 for the replies.

I would like to go there with hubby and see the most recent things they used to decide the claim. However, it's a 5 hour round trip drive, so I've been holding off. I had heard they have a thing called "veteran waiting" where they are supposed to help you within 15 minutes when you show up in person to the VARO. But I am hesitant because I know the last thing they want to do, is let you see the contents of your own cfile.

I know I can put a request in writing, but that could take a REALLY long time to get it.

Chuck75-- what did they say?

[Vync]

I tried the "veteran waiting" at Montgomery VARO. I drove on over and the person laughed at me. They said I need to request an appointment or request a copy. He then said it would be 6+ months to fulfill my request. I got my c-file in the mail much later...

[georgiapapa]

A few years ago I called Peggy and asked how do I make arrangements to see my c-file at the Atlanta RO. Peggy stated no appointment is required, just show up and they will accomodate your request. I made a wasted 3 hour round trip to the Atlanta RO.

The VA employee at the front desk asked if I had an appointment to view my c-file. When I responded "no", she threw a piece of paper on the counter and said, "put your request to view your c-file in writing and the VA will schedule you for an appointment."

I waited several months without hearing anything from the VA. I also noticed that my pending claim suddenly went from preparation for decision back to gathering evidence. I found out that my request to view my c-file was considered an FOIA request and as a result my pending claim was placed on hold. Based on advice I received from others, I faxed a request to the Atlanta RO asking them to cancel my request to view my c-file. A few days later, my pending claim went back to preparation for decision and I received a favorable decision a few weeks later. If you have any issues pending, keep this in mind if you make a written request to view or request a copy of your husband's file. Of course, this may have changed since I experienced my problems and your RO may be more cooperative.

Perhaps you can get a contact number or fax number to your RO from Berta and you can call or fax your question to them about viewing your husband's c-file. This might save you a 5 hour round trip. JMO

[rootbeer22]

Folks:

I'm a former FOIA Officer, and have had no luck attempting to review my C-file either That was one of the importnat recomendations that I got from this site. I've sent letters and emails to the regional office and they continue to advise that they cannot give me a date in which I could review my file? I've heard a lot of war stories about Vets that have records missing or some one else's records in their files? No sure why a request to see your C-File would slow anything up because there's nothing for them to do...especially if the files are in electronic files anyway?

[Notorious Kelly]

The VA is so ripe for an investigative reporter to find out the REAL gouge and blow the lid off.

[Vync]

Kelly is right. There are tons of award winning expose's waiting to be revealed from behind the VA facade.