Reading your VA decision letter

How your letter arrives

Once VA decides your claim, you can review and download the decision letter in the claim status tool on VA.gov. VA also mails you a copy, which should arrive within 10 business days, though it can take longer.

What the letter contains

If you're eligible for disability benefits, the letter includes your disability rating, the amount of your monthly payments and the date your payments will start. It also explains the decision: the issues VA decided, a summary of the evidence it considered and the rules that apply, the findings in your favor, and for anything denied, what was missing. It also summarizes your review options.

Read it one condition at a time

For each condition, look at whether VA granted, denied, deferred, increased or continued it, and at the reasons and evidence VA gave. If your letter says VA deferred a condition, VA has not decided it yet, so it is not a denial. The review options below are for conditions VA has already decided.

Three dates that are easy to mix up

• The decision date is the date on your decision letter. Review deadlines count from it.
• The effective date is the date VA counts your benefits from. For a first claim, it is generally the later of the date VA received your claim and the date you became entitled. If VA receives your claim within 1 year of the day you left active service, the effective date can be as early as the day after you separated. An intent to file can also set an earlier potential start date: if you notify VA of your intent to file and then file a complete claim within 1 year, VA may use the intent-to-file date. For disability benefits, VA says this works for a first claim or a Supplemental Claim. Increases, presumptive conditions and some other situations follow different rules, which VA's effective date page explains.
• The payment start date generally comes after the effective date: VA pays from the first day of the month after the month your award takes effect, with some exceptions.

If you disagree with a decision

For a decision you received on or after February 19, 2019, you can ask VA to review it. For most benefits you have 1 year from the date on your decision letter to ask for a review; some benefits have shorter limits, and your letter tells you your deadline. If you already appealed a decision dated before February 19, 2019, the older appeals process applies.

GMAC covers two of the review options:

• Supplemental Claim. For when you have new and relevant evidence, or when a change in law applies to your claim. VA describes new evidence as information it hasn't considered before, and relevant evidence as information that proves or disproves something in your claim. If a condition has gotten worse, VA says to file for an increase instead. You can file a Supplemental Claim at any time; VA recommends filing within 1 year from the date on your decision letter to keep your effective date.
• Higher-Level Review. A more senior reviewer looks at your case again, using the evidence VA already had; you can't add new evidence. Ask for it within 1 year of the date on your decision letter. You can request one optional informal conference, a call with the reviewer, which may lengthen the review. It isn't available after a previous Higher-Level Review of the same issue, and other limits apply.

Other review options are explained on VA.gov.

Keeping an earlier effective date

Two different rules can help, and they work differently:

• Continuing your original claim. If you keep pursuing an issue by filing a review within 1 year of each decision, VA can keep the effective date tied to your original claim, as long as the requirements for that review are met.
• An intent to file. An intent to file can reserve an earlier date for a Supplemental Claim if you file the complete Supplemental Claim within 1 year of the intent to file. Under VA's current guidance, if you submit the intent to file within 1 year of the decision, VA can treat the issue as still being pursued, which may keep the effective date tied to your original claim even if the complete Supplemental Claim arrives after that year. An intent to file does not apply to a Higher-Level Review, and you can have only one active intent to file at a time for each type of benefit.

If a Supplemental Claim arrives more than 1 year after the decision, and no intent to file kept the issue going, VA no longer treats it as continuing your original claim. The effective date then generally can't be earlier than the date VA received the Supplemental Claim, or the date of a qualifying intent to file. The rules that apply depend on your situation; your letter and VA.gov explain them.

How GMAC can help

In a one-on-one video consultation, GMAC can go over your decision letter with you: granted, denied, deferred, increased and continued conditions, the VA's reasons and evidence, whether a Supplemental Claim or Higher-Level Review fits, and a strategy for what comes next. You decide what to file, and you sign and submit your own documents. GMAC is a private company. It is not the VA and is not VA-accredited, and no outcome is guaranteed. Read the full disclaimer.

Related guide: Preparing for your VA claim exam.

Sources

Checked October 22, 2026:

• After you file your claim, VA.gov, last updated October 5, 2026
• Disability compensation effective dates, VA.gov, last updated September 22, 2026
• Your intent to file a VA claim, VA.gov, last updated September 22, 2026
• Supplemental Claims and Higher-Level Reviews, VA.gov, last updated October 22, 2026
• Decision reviews FAQs, VA.gov, last updated September 30, 2025
• 38 CFR 3.31, 3.103, 3.155, 3.400, 3.2500, 3.2501 and 3.2601, eCFR
• Military-Veterans Advocacy v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 7 F.4th 1110 (Fed. Cir. 2021), which held invalid the part of 38 CFR 3.155 that excluded Supplemental Claims from the intent-to-file rule, and VA's implementing guidance (VBA Policy Letter 23-01 and the M21-1 manual)