The clock that matters: file your review within one year of the decision date and you keep your original effective date — all back pay preserved. Past a year, you can still refile, but the effective date resets and every month since the denial is money gone.
Read the decision letter first
The rater's explanation tells you exactly why you were denied — and the reason picks your lane:
- Supplemental Claim — when evidence was missing. No nexus opinion, thin records, no diagnosis on file. Add new and relevant evidence and refile. This is the right lane for most denials, and it's where a properly built medical opinion earns its keep.
- Higher-Level Review — when the VA got it wrong with what it had. A senior reviewer re-examines the same file for errors. No new evidence allowed — and free. Don't buy a medical opinion for a denial that HLR would fix.
- Board Appeal — the last resort. A Veterans Law Judge, with a 1–2 year wait. Right for genuine disputes of law or judgment, not for fixable evidence gaps.
Why claims actually get denied
- The medical opinion hedged ("may be related") instead of stating "at least as likely as not"
- No rationale — a conclusion without the medical reasoning behind it
- The service records were never reviewed, or the letter never said they were
- A C&P exam nobody prepared for came back negative
- The evidence never spoke to the actual rating criteria
Every one of those is fixable — before the one-year clock runs out.
Think you're underrated? Find out in 2 minutes.
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