What does BVA mean in US GOVERNMENT

The Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) is an administrative body that reviews decision made by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on various types claims and appeals of VA decisions relating to veterans' benefits, including disability compensation, pension, education and insurance.

You can initiate a review by filing a Notice Of Disagreement (NOD) with the VA Regional Office responsible for processing your claim or appeal. Once the VA has reviewed your NOD and issued a Statement Of The Case (SOC), you may then file a substantive appeal with the BVA for further review.

When you submit your appeal to BVA, it is assigned to one of its “Judges”, who will review all relevant evidence in your case in order to render and issue a decision. During this process, you may be asked additional questions and/or required to submit additional evidence in support of your appeal.

Generally speaking, any type of relevant evidence can be submitted such as service records, medical reports, private doctor statements, witness testimony etc., which are all taken into consideration during the review process. You should make sure that any evidence submitted complies with VA regulations in regard to form, content and deadlines stated therein.

Generally no; however each claim or appeal is evaluated separately and different appeals might have different award amounts depending on individual circumstances. It's best to work closely with your claims representative or lawyer throughout this process if necessary for proper guidance regarding potential award amount for successful appeals.

This depends largely on numerous factors such as complexity of case and workload at time of submission. Generally though, once all pertinent documents have been received from both you and/or from VA records offices expect a response time typically within 6-12 months from date filed with BVA office.