How Long Does a VA Disability Claim Take?
Updated for 2026
After you file a VA disability claim, it moves through eight phases before you get a decision. Here's how long it takes on average, what happens at each step, and when your first payment arrives.
That 72.3-day figure is an average, not a guarantee. The VA notes that the time to review your claim depends on:
- The type of claim you filed
- How many injuries or disabilities you claimed and how complex they are
- How long it takes the VA to collect the evidence needed to decide your claim
The 8 Steps of the VA Claim Process
Every disability claim moves through the same eight phases. If you submit new evidence partway through, your claim goes back to Step 3 (Evidence gathering) for review — one of the most common reasons a claim takes longer than average.
1Claim received
The VA confirms it has your claim. File online and you'll see an on-screen confirmation right after you submit. Mail your application instead, and the VA sends a letter confirming receipt about one week (plus mailing time) after it arrives.
2Initial review
The VA checks your claim for the basic information it needs, such as your name and Social Security number. If anything is missing, the VA contacts you.
3Evidence gathering Usually the longest step
The VA reviews your claim and makes sure it has all the evidence and information needed to decide it. To gather more evidence, the VA may ask you to submit evidence, ask you to attend a claim exam, request records from your private health care provider, or pull evidence from its own VA records.
Note: You can submit evidence at any time — but if you submit it after this step, your claim goes back to this step for review.
4Evidence review
The VA reviews all the evidence for your claim. If more evidence is needed, or you submit more, the claim returns to Step 3 (Evidence gathering).
5Rating
The VA decides your claim and determines your disability rating.
6Preparing decision letter
The VA prepares your decision letter. If you're eligible for disability benefits, this letter includes your disability rating, the amount of your monthly payments, and the date your payments will start.
7Final review
A senior reviewer does a final review of your claim and the decision letter.
8Claim decided
You'll be able to review and download your decision letter in the claim status tool. The VA also mails you a copy, which should arrive within 10 business days (sometimes longer).
When Will I Get My First Payment?
If your decision notice shows at least a 10% disability rating, the VA pays your first payment within 15 days, by direct deposit or check. If you don't receive a payment after 15 days, call the Veterans help line at 800-827-1000 (Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET).
Effective Dates & Back Pay
When the VA decides to pay a disability benefit, it assigns an effective date — the day your benefits can start. Because a decision often comes months after you file, the VA pays back to your effective date as a lump sum (commonly called VA back pay). Knowing your effective date is the key to estimating what you're owed.
Direct service connection
For a disability caused — or made worse — by military service, the effective date is whichever of these comes later:
- The date the VA gets your claim, or
- The date you first got your illness or injury (the date your entitlement arose)
Important exception: If the VA gets your claim within one year of the day you left active service, the effective date can be as early as the day following separation.
Other common situations
- Presumptive service connection: If the VA gets your claim within one year of separation, the effective date is the date you first got the illness or injury. File more than a year after separating and it's the later of when you got the condition or when the VA received the claim.
- Increased rating: The VA dates an increase back to the earliest date you can show your disability got worse — but only if it receives the new claim within one year of that date. Otherwise it's the date the VA gets the claim.
- Reopened claim: The effective date is the date the VA gets the request to reopen, or the date you first got the illness or injury, whichever is later.
- Liberalizing law change: If a law or regulation change makes you newly eligible and you file within a year, the effective date may be the date the law changed.
What If I Disagree With the Decision?
If you disagree with your disability rating, you can file an appeal — but you must do it within one year of getting your decision notice. For decisions received on or after February 19, 2019, you have three decision-review options to choose from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & verification: Claim-process steps, the 72.3-day average (April 2026), payment timing, and effective-date rules are from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA.gov — After you file your claim). Average processing time changes monthly; we review it periodically. Reviewed June 2026. See our full methodology for how we source and verify every figure.