You have one year and three doors.

Supplemental Claim (VA Form 20-0995)

Use it when you have new and relevant evidence. New means the VA has not seen it before. Relevant means it proves or disproves something in your claim. A new medical opinion, a buddy statement, a record the VA never got, a new diagnosis.

• New evidence: required (unless a law changed, like the PACT Act).
• Deadline: file within one year of the decision to keep your effective date.
• Time: the VA's average for compensation Supplemental Claims was about 59 days as of August 2026, against a goal of 125 days.

This is the most common path, and the one that fixes most denials, because most denials come down to a missing piece of evidence.

Higher-Level Review (VA Form 20-0996)

Use it when the evidence was fine and the VA got it wrong. A more senior reviewer looks at the same file with fresh eyes.

• New evidence: not allowed. If you have new evidence, this is the wrong door.
• Deadline: within one year of the decision.
• You can ask for one informal phone conference with the reviewer to point out the error.
• You cannot ask for a Higher-Level Review of a Higher-Level Review, or of a Board decision.
• Time: the VA's goal is an average of 125 days.

Board Appeal (VA Form 10182)

Use it when you want a Veterans Law Judge to decide. Three lanes:

• Direct review. No new evidence, no hearing. VA's target: about 1 year.
• Evidence submission. New evidence with the appeal or within 90 days, no hearing. Target: about 1.5 years.
• Hearing. New evidence and a hearing with the judge, virtual, by video, or in person. Target: about 2 years.

Deadline: within one year of the decision on your claim, Supplemental Claim, or Higher-Level Review.

Picking the door

• New evidence in hand: Supplemental Claim.
• Same evidence, clear mistake: Higher-Level Review.
• Complex case, or the first two did not work: Board Appeal.

You can move between them. A denied Higher-Level Review can be followed by a Supplemental Claim with new evidence, and either can go to the Board, as long as each step is filed within its one-year window.

How we help

We read the denial reason and match it to the door that actually fixes it. Most of the time that means finding the missing evidence and helping you put together a Supplemental Claim. When the file is right and the VA simply erred, we help you lay that out for a Higher-Level Review.