A VA claim lives or dies on its evidence. The strongest claims are not the loudest; they are the best documented. Here is a plain-English checklist of what to gather before you file, so nothing important gets left out.
The three things every claim must establish
Before the checklist, remember what you are proving (38 CFR 3.303):
- A current, diagnosed condition
- An in-service event, injury, illness, or exposure
- A medical link between the two
Every piece of evidence below supports one of those three.
The evidence checklist
- A current diagnosis. Recent medical records confirming your condition, diagnosed to accepted standards.
- Service records. Your DD-214, service treatment records, and personnel records. These help establish the in-service event or exposure.
- The in-service event documentation. Anything showing the injury, illness, exposure, or stressor: treatment notes, incident records, your MOS and its known hazards.
- A nexus letter. A medical opinion linking your condition to service, in VA terms ("at least as likely as not"), when the connection is not already clear from your records.
- Lay and buddy statements. Statements from you (VA Form 21-4138) and from people who witnessed the event or your symptoms. These carry real weight, especially when records are thin.
- Evidence of severity. Documentation of how bad the condition is: range-of-motion measurements, symptom logs, flare-up records, and how it affects your work and daily life.
The forms you will likely use
- VA Form 21-526EZ — the main disability claim form
- VA Form 21-4138 — statement in support of a claim (for your own and buddy statements)
- VA Form 21-0966 — intent to file, which can protect your effective date while you gather evidence
A note on the intent to file
If you are still gathering evidence, filing an intent to file (VA Form 21-0966) can preserve your effective date, meaning if your claim is later granted, benefits can be paid back to that earlier date. Do not let evidence-gathering cost you months of back pay.
A real-world example
A veteran had a strong case on paper but filed with only his diagnosis and a short statement. The claim stalled because nothing connected the condition to service. Once he added service records showing the in-service injury, a buddy statement, and a nexus letter, the file finally had all three elements.
Where to find your military records
Locating your service treatment records is often the first real hurdle in building a claim. Where your records live depends on when and how you separated:
- Most veterans who separated before 1992 have paper records stored at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri.
- Veterans who separated more recently typically have records maintained electronically, integrated between DoD and VA systems.
- If your VA claim already references your service treatment records, the VA generally already has them on file, and you may not need to request them separately.
How to request your records:
- Request through VA.gov or by submitting a Standard Form 180 (SF-180) directly to the NPRC.
- For urgent situations, or if records were affected by the 1973 NPRC fire (which destroyed many Army and Air Force records from that era), contact the NPRC directly.