VA Form 10182, Step by Step: How to Request a Board Appeal

Check the date. You generally have one year from the date VA mailed its decision to file (38 U.S.C. § 7105(b)(1); 38 C.F.R. § 20.203(b)). VA treats the date on your decision letter as the mailing date. Contested claims, where two people claim the same benefit, have a 60-day deadline (VA: Board Appeal). The Board can extend the deadline for good cause if you ask in writing, and the Board decides whether your reason is good enough (§ 20.203(c)). Don't plan around getting an extension. How Long Do I Have to Appeal a VA Decision? covers the deadlines in more detail.

Check which decision you're appealing. A Board Appeal can follow an initial claim decision, a Supplemental Claim decision or a Higher-Level Review decision. VA says you can't request two Board Appeals in a row for the same claim (VA: Board Appeal).

Use the right form. The Board won't accept a letter, or a different VA form, as your Notice of Disagreement (38 C.F.R. § 20.202(d)). Download the current version from VA's form page (revised June 2026 when this was written) or file online.

Have your decision letter open. How to Read Your VA Decision Letter shows where the issues, dates and reasons appear.

The opening sections ask for the Veteran's identifying details and, if someone else is the claimant (for example, a surviving spouse), that person's details too. Copy the VA file number from your decision letter and give a mailing address, phone number and email you check. A claimant can file personally. If a claimant can't file because of incompetency or a physical disability, a fiduciary or a next friend can file for them (38 C.F.R. § 20.204).

This is the most important choice on the form. By law, your Notice of Disagreement must say which of three options you want (38 U.S.C. § 7105(b)(3)). Each one sets a different record for the Board (38 U.S.C. § 7113):

• Direct Review. The Board looks only at the evidence VA had when it made its decision. No new evidence and no hearing (§ 20.301). VA's goal is to decide these in 365 days.
• Evidence Submission. You can add evidence with the form or within 90 days after the Board receives it (§ 20.303). VA's goal is 550 days.
• Hearing. You can speak with a Board judge and add evidence at the hearing or within 90 days after it (§ 20.302). VA's goal is 730 days. VA offers a virtual tele-hearing, a videoconference at a VA location near you, or an in-person hearing in Washington, D.C., at your own travel cost.

Those decision times are VA's goals, not promises (VA: Board Appeal). The 90-day windows run from the Board's receipt of your form or from your hearing, not from the day you mail something. If you withdraw a hearing request, or miss a hearing that isn't rescheduled, the window runs from the withdrawal notice or the missed hearing date (§ 20.302(b)-(c)).

A simple way to think about it: if VA already had everything it needed and simply got it wrong, Direct Review is usually the fastest track. If you have, or can get, evidence VA didn't see, the Evidence Submission or Hearing docket lets the Board consider it. Board Appeal Dockets compares the three in more depth.

Changing your mind. You can switch dockets by filing a new VA Form 10182. The Board must receive it within one year of the decision's mailing date or 60 days after it received your first form, whichever is later. You can't switch once you've submitted evidence or testimony under the Evidence Submission or Hearing rules (§ 20.202(c)(2)).

When a decision covered more than one issue, the form must identify the specific decision and the issues you disagree with (§ 20.202(a)). List each issue on its own line, worded the way your decision letter words it, with the date of that decision. Be specific about what you disagree with. "Rating for left knee" and "effective date for tinnitus" are different issues, even if both came in the same letter. The Board decides the issues you put in front of it, so don't leave one off and assume it's included.

Sign and date the form. VA lists five ways to submit it (VA: Board Appeal; § 20.203(a)):

• Online through VA.gov.
• By mail to Board of Veterans' Appeals, PO Box 27063, Washington, DC 20038.
• In person at a VA regional office.
• By fax. VA's Board Appeal page gives the current fax number.
• With help from an accredited attorney, claims agent or Veterans Service Organization representative, who can fill out and submit it with you.

A form postmarked before your deadline is treated as filed on time (38 U.S.C. § 7105(b)(1)). Keep a copy and proof of the date you sent it. If you chose Evidence Submission, sending your evidence with the form is the simplest way to stay inside the window.

The Board decides your appeal based on the record your docket allows. The Board doesn't gather new evidence itself. If it finds VA made an error in its duty to help you get evidence before the decision you appealed, and it can't grant the issue in full, it sends that issue back to the regional office to fix the error and decide it again (38 C.F.R. § 20.802(a)).

If the Board denies an issue, you have 120 days from the date of its decision to appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (38 U.S.C. § 7266(a)). A Supplemental Claim is another option. HLR, Supplemental Claim, or Board Appeal? and Effective Dates and Continuous Pursuit explain how to keep your effective date protected.

• The form will reach the Board within one year of the date on your decision letter.
• You're using the current VA Form 10182, or filing online.
• Each issue is listed separately, with its decision date.
• You checked one docket, and you know its evidence window.
• If you picked the Hearing docket, you chose a hearing type.
• You signed, dated, kept a copy and kept proof of when you sent it.

This article is general information, not legal advice about your situation.