Ebenefits says my appeal is still at regional office.

[kent101]

I had my denied claim denied a second time at the regional office even though I asked it be sent to the BVA. Now it's been about 450 days since that last denial. I did form 9. The claim was started around 2011.

Edited September 20, 2016 by kent101

[lotzaspotz]

Kent, I'm not sure you asked a question about this, but it sounds like the RO is in the process of certifying your appeal to the Board.  That can take (judging from personal experience) from a year and a half to two years.  Hopefully, your RO can finish that task quicker than that but ours did not.  Once the Board gets it, you'll be assigned a docket number.  In the meantime, you can use this interim period to gather more evidence to support your appeal.  You can do this right up until the day the Board makes a decision.  However, if the Board denies and you then appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (which at that point removes it from VA jurisdiction and places it in the DOJ system), you cannot add new evidence.  The Court can only review the evidence before the Board at the time it reached its decision.

If you provide new evidence to the Board, make sure you waive sending it back to your RO to review first.  That is, tell the Board you want the Board to weigh it, not the RO.  Otherwise, you're lengthening the time it takes to process the appeal.

[saxman]

kent, did you do a NOD for the first denied claim and then received a SOC before sending in the form 9?

[kent101]

51 minutes ago, saxman said:

kent, did you do a NOD for the first denied claim and then received a SOC before sending in the form 9?

I sent in the form 9 first from what I remember. The RO decided to make me wait a year to give me a second denial. Now I'm waiting for it to go to the BVA. I originally just wanted it to go to the BVA.

[kent101]

3 hours ago, lotzaspotz said:

Kent, I'm not sure you asked a question about this, but it sounds like the RO is in the process of certifying your appeal to the Board.  That can take (judging from personal experience) from a year and a half to two years.  Hopefully, your RO can finish that task quicker than that but ours did not.  Once the Board gets it, you'll be assigned a docket number.  In the meantime, you can use this interim period to gather more evidence to support your appeal.  You can do this right up until the day the Board makes a decision.  However, if the Board denies and you then appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (which at that point removes it from VA jurisdiction and places it in the DOJ system), you cannot add new evidence.  The Court can only review the evidence before the Board at the time it reached its decision.

If you provide new evidence to the Board, make sure you waive sending it back to your RO to review first.  That is, tell the Board you want the Board to weigh it, not the RO.  Otherwise, you're lengthening the time it takes to process the appeal.

That makes sense, thanks. I sent in the form 9 for the BVA back in may 2015 after the RO denied me the second time. I didn't even want the RO to review it again but they did. So it should be going to the BVA soon I hope.