Your First VA Claim: Get the Pieces in Place

"Service connected" is the VA's way of saying a condition traces back to your time in uniform. A rater reading your file needs to find three things before they can say yes:

• A condition you have today. Pain, ringing ears and bad sleep are symptoms. The VA rates diagnosed conditions, so a provider has to have put a name on it.
• Something that happened while you served. An injury, an illness, a noise or chemical exposure, a traumatic event. Service treatment records are where the VA looks first, though they aren't the only proof it will accept.
• A medical link between the two. Usually an examiner's or doctor's opinion that the condition is at least as likely as not tied to service.

Some claims get a shortcut on that third piece. For listed conditions tied to certain places and dates, such as burn pit and Agent Orange exposure, the VA presumes the link (our PACT Act page covers those). Certain chronic diseases, arthritis and high blood pressure among them, can also be presumed if they reach a compensable level within a year of discharge.

An Intent to File tells the VA a claim is coming. If you then submit the complete claim within one year, the VA treats it as filed on the day it received your intent. That date usually becomes your effective date, the point back pay is counted from.

Say you submit an intent on March 3 and spend the summer collecting records. The full claim goes in on November 20. If the VA grants it, the effective date is generally March 3, which works out to about eight extra months of payments compared with filing cold in November.

There are four ways to start one:

• Begin the disability application on VA.gov while signed in with a verified account. Starting it online sets the intent automatically.
• Submit VA Form 21-0966 online at VA.gov, or mail it.
• Call the VA and ask a representative to record it.
• Ask a county veterans service officer or an accredited service organization to submit it with you.

The intent only names the benefit you want. You don't need your conditions or evidence figured out yet, which is exactly why it should come first.

Records from your service

The VA requests your service treatment records itself, but get your own copy too. Reading them tells you which injuries were written down and which ones you'll need to prove another way. Keep your DD214 and any line-of-duty paperwork handy.

Medical records from after you got out

VA treatment notes, private doctors, chiropractors, physical therapy, urgent care visits. Anything showing the condition and how long you've dealt with it. Ten years of steady treatment for a bad knee says a lot more than one visit last month.

Statements from you and people who saw it

Your own written statement can explain what happened and how the condition affects work, sleep and family life. Someone who served with you, or a spouse who has watched it get worse, can back that up. See our guide to buddy statements for what makes one useful.

A medical opinion, when the link isn't obvious

If nothing in your records connects the condition to service, a private nexus letter with real reasoning behind it can fill that gap.

Guard and Reserve service counts

Conditions from federal active duty qualify, and so can an injury on a drill weekend or an injury or illness during annual training. Orders and line-of-duty determinations become important evidence here.

List every condition

Veterans routinely leave things off: tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep apnea, mental health conditions, old scars. If you believe service caused it, put it on the claim. A condition never claimed can never be rated.

Most claims lead to a compensation and pension exam with a VA clinician or a contracted examiner. No treatment happens there. The examiner fills out a standardized report, and the rater leans hard on what that report says.

• Show up. Missing it without a good reason usually leaves the VA deciding on whatever is already in the file.
• Describe your bad days. If your back locks up three times a month, say so even if today is a decent day, and explain what you can't do during a flare-up.
• Bring a short written list of your symptoms, how often they hit, the treatment you've had, and where the condition gets in the way at work and at home.
• Keep it accurate. Downplaying things to seem tough hurts you, and so does stretching them, because the examiner's notes get compared with your records.

Our C&P exam guide goes deeper on what examiners measure for common conditions.

Still on active duty

The Benefits Delivery at Discharge program lets you file 180 to 90 days before your separation date. You'll need to be available for VA exams within 45 days of filing and include the Separation Health Assessment Part A self-assessment. With fewer than 90 days left, you can still file before you get out, just as a standard claim.

Out less than a year

File the claim within one year of separation and the effective date can reach back to the day after your discharge. That year passes fast during a move or a new job, so an Intent to File early on is cheap insurance.

Out for years

There is no deadline for a first claim. The effective date will generally be when the VA receives your intent or claim, so the main cost of waiting is pay you never get back. Our page on effective dates and back pay explains how that's figured.

When the letter arrives

Check every condition, every percentage and the effective date. If something was denied or rated low, you have one year from the letter's date for most review options. Start with our page on denied claims.