Newark Regional Office

[twmapes74]

Has anyone had any experiences with the Newark Regional Office? I filed an FDC on January 20, 2015 and it is still listed as "Under Review" in eBenefits. I would of have thought I would have gotten a call for a C and P exam by now. I uploaded my entire service medical record all my private medical records.

[Mont36]

Trust me when I tell you there are an increase in FDC claims thus going to cause a backlog on these claims. The issue is that that any VSR can develop a claim. So if a claim that is say 9 months old and not FDC and yours is 2 months old with FDC it just depends on what is going on with the claim. Sad but this is true then you got this new INTENT TO FILE mess that has come along to further complicate things which is effective March 24, 2015. The problem is there is not a team that handles just FDC claims. If they had a team solely dedicated to FDC then it would be faster process. I think the FDC has caused a misconception because although it is designed to expedite ones claim, if we ( I work for VA) develop for federal records, and they don't respond timely then that causes delays. Or if you claim special issues such as PTSD,Agent Orange, we have to request personnel records. With PTSD if you say an event happened, that caused you stressor on the VA FORM 21-0781, has to be two month range given to us in order to verify stressor causing PTSD from PTSD coordinator. So there are a lot of factors. One question, what are you claiming? That way I can give insight on what they may be doing or waiting on. Good Luck!!!

[twmapes74]

Just to give you a little background. I have chondromalacia in both my knees from an injury when I was in an auto accident while I was on active duty. I shared the records with my ortho doc and he said more than likely than not that the calcification in my knees were caused by the auto accident and the resulting 5 years that I spent on active duty and 10 years in the reserves made them worse. I have been diagnosed with patella pain syndrome in both knees. In addition, I sprained my ankle while deployed for Operation Northern Watch in 2000 and now I have arthritis in my right ankle and it hurts worse than my knees some days. My ankle ortho doc also said that the arthritis in the ankle more likely than not was caused by the sprain. I still get shin splints in that ankle. I also claimed epistatis (nose bleeds), I was having real bad nose bleeds when I was in "A" school in the Navy, I mean like twice a day for two weeks. I still have a nose bleed today like once or twice a week.

[twmapes74]

And the injuries are all documented in my service record that I provided to the VA since they could not find mine.