Understand the VA disability process

Learn the major claim stages and the difference between education, planning, evidence, filing, and VA adjudication.

Protect the effective date / understand Intent to File

Review official guidance before deciding whether and how to protect a potential effective date.

This opens an official external source. VMC does not mark the external government action complete automatically.

Gather service and medical evidence

Organize records and understand what evidence may support a claim theory.

Identify conditions

Use VMC condition and diagnostic references without turning a reference into a diagnosis.

Understand primary and secondary conditions

Review documented and possible relationships while keeping Veteran-reported, medical, and regulatory evidence distinct.

Review rating criteria

Read source-grounded VASRD information and diagnostic-code context.

Prepare claim information

Organize claimed issues, evidence, tasks, and review-first planning.

Understand VA forms

Review the purpose and current official form source before preparing anything.

Prepare for C&P exams

Understand what the exam is for and organize relevant symptom and functional-impact information.

Track claim / decision information

Keep VMC planning status separate from authoritative VA status until future authorized integration confirms it.

Understand a decision

Review outcomes, favorable findings, reasons, evidence, and chronology from a decision letter.

Review available next steps

Use reviewed decision information to understand options without treating VMC as a representative or adjudicator.

Review compensation and benefits

Verify VA math, model back pay, and compare reviewed facts with governed benefit criteria.