Seattle Regional VA Timelines:

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jozzz123 said:
Get a hold of your Congressman or woman. Or you can try your Senator. Or any organization like VFW, Military Order Of The Purple Heart, American Legion.
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Also DAV rep, you can google it for the link. You may even get help from the WWP people also.

Smedrok, it does certainly suck about the detachment from family and the Army not considering our family situations in relation to this process. It would be nice if AD personnel were allowed to go to CBWTU's just as NG/RC are. That would allow us to live at home at least during the LONG wait for the initial ratings. So stupid that I need to be here at the WTU doing NOTHING for months on end during this piece of the process. It is actually 20 times worse for us to sit around and loathe in our own pity waiting and waiting and waiting. They say its a good time to prepare for transitioning out, but there is only so much you can do. I went so far as to get job offers and interview and so forth (as my command told me to)...and so I got a few offers and then had to turn them down because I couldn't give them a realistic time frame of a start date. Now I'm left with starting the process of interviewing all over again...which at this point I'll just wait until I'm completely out.
 
Also, as far as advocating for yourself...it is pointless unless your case is noteworthy. And you won't get any attention until it has reached an unreasonable wait time (such as over 125 days or longer waiting for initial ratings). Anything before that and you are in the same boat as hundreds of others going through the IDES process, so they won't care. I'm now at 145 days or so, so they are finally pushing mine through.

So you guys know, they are just going to be starting on the December cases for Seattle next week. So if you are in the beginning of the month for your unfit letter (of December) then your packet will be looked at next week....and I would count down from there week to week. I got this information from someone at NRMC. So if your unfit was just sent in March, you've got probably another 4 months to wait....
 
tonyfromnj said:
Also, as far as advocating for yourself...it is pointless unless your case is noteworthy. And you won't get any attention until it has reached an unreasonable wait time (such as over 125 days or longer waiting for initial ratings). Anything before that and you are in the same boat as hundreds of others going through the IDES process, so they won't care. I'm now at 145 days or so, so they are finally pushing mine through.

So you guys know, they are just going to be starting on the December cases for Seattle next week. So if you are in the beginning of the month for your unfit letter (of December) then your packet will be looked at next week....and I would count down from there week to week. I got this information from someone at NRMC. So if your unfit was just sent in March, you've got probably another 4 months to wait....
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Interesting....

My PEB unfit memorandum was processed on 22 Jan 12 and then I received error-filled IPEB findings 71 days later.

Thus, possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer.

Best Wishes!
 
tonyfromnj said:
Also, as far as advocating for yourself...it is pointless unless your case is noteworthy. And you won't get any attention until it has reached an unreasonable wait time (such as over 125 days or longer waiting for initial ratings). Anything before that and you are in the same boat as hundreds of others going through the IDES process, so they won't care. I'm now at 145 days or so, so they are finally pushing mine through.

So you guys know, they are just going to be starting on the December cases for Seattle next week. So if you are in the beginning of the month for your unfit letter (of December) then your packet will be looked at next week....and I would count down from there week to week. I got this information from someone at NRMC. So if your unfit was just sent in March, you've got probably another 4 months to wait....
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I wouldn't be putting information out that is completely wrong. Scroll back through the forums here and you will see that many people got their ratings from Seattle in a decent time. This includes people that had their unfit memo in Jan, Feb, and March. Just because you apparently were told this, doesn't it make it true, and then doesn't give you the right to post it here like it is fact. People come on here to find factual and helpful information. I might sound pretty harsh, but it's stuff like this that irritates me, especially when your putting down peoples hopes and telling them that their advocating will not work. This is all untrue and you are completely wrong. Now that is FACTUAL info.
 
Does anyone know how long it takes to get your ratings when ebenefits change to pending decision approval?
 
I made contact with the DAV rep, they require us to attend the briefing in Oakland every Wednesday. They will explain in detail how they will represent the soldier and find out the status. I am already out of the Army and my DD 214 was already received by VA. Since I already went through the IDES process and VA did all the ratings, it should not take that long for someone to just take the proposed ratinings convert over to the final award letter. Have who ever sign it. So for me I really don't understand what they make it so difficult especially if they already did their part.
 
Sicotic said:
Damn spoofer just seen that post... That sucks man.
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It's all good man. I ended up becoming impatient after all of 5 minutes, so I called back the PDA lady that called me last Friday to originally put me on the TRANSPROC list and told her there was a mixup. I wasn't about to wait for Fort Riley to send my name back along with a bunch of others at the end of the day. She said sorry for the confusion and that she would send me to Fort Carson's. I hit the list maybe an hour later and Sascha let me know.

Anyways, my NLT date is still 18July2013. I clear out of Fort Carson on 9June2013. They (CBWTU) told me to take leave whenever. I put in a leave request tomorrow to start leave early May (haven't picked a day yet...). I'll take leave up until June 9th when I have to go down and clear for 3 days. After that I'll go back on leave until my NLT date, unless I choose to sell it (or both).
 
tonyfromnj said:
Also, as far as advocating for yourself...it is pointless unless your case is noteworthy. And you won't get any attention until it has reached an unreasonable wait time (such as over 125 days or longer waiting for initial ratings). Anything before that and you are in the same boat as hundreds of others going through the IDES process, so they won't care. I'm now at 145 days or so, so they are finally pushing mine through.

So you guys know, they are just going to be starting on the December cases for Seattle next week. So if you are in the beginning of the month for your unfit letter (of December) then your packet will be looked at next week....and I would count down from there week to week. I got this information from someone at NRMC. So if your unfit was just sent in March, you've got probably another 4 months to wait....
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So what about November cases??? Are wet just forgotten about...
 
It's been 150 days since my unfit memo and 170 since I signed my Narsum. I've gotten over waiting, but in a month my daughter graduates and I will not miss that. These are the things that matter in life that this process doesn't allow for. I've missed every other milestone in her life because of deployments. I refuse to miss this one!!!
 
tonyfromnj said:
Also, as far as advocating for yourself...it is pointless unless your case is noteworthy. And you won't get any attention until it has reached an unreasonable wait time (such as over 125 days or longer waiting for initial ratings). Anything before that and you are in the same boat as hundreds of others going through the IDES process, so they won't care. I'm now at 145 days or so, so they are finally pushing mine through.

So you guys know, they are just going to be starting on the December cases for Seattle next week. So if you are in the beginning of the month for your unfit letter (of December) then your packet will be looked at next week....and I would count down from there week to week. I got this information from someone at NRMC. So if your unfit was just sent in March, you've got probably another 4 months to wait....
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I'm not sure where you got that information from but that's false, most claims get proposed in two months or less but their are some that take longer and no one really knows why except the RO who has the claim, it's just that the ones who are waiting over two months usually come one forums like these to vent

In my opinion the IDES backlog Is the ARMY fault not the VA, the army is cutting numbers by sending soldiers who been on permanent profiles through MEB and separating them before their original ETS, so the VA is receiving more claims then their system is suppose to handle so the process is getting slower and backlog is growing
 
Let me be the one billionth (approximate guess) person to comment on how jacked up the Seattle VA has been in processing my claim so far...I received my unfit memo in early March, with one unfitting cardiac condition. A few weeks later the VA came back and said that they needed an additional test to evaluate my claim and sent it back to my local VA office (where I had the C&P exams done) to schedule the test. Of course they scheduled it without ever notifying me or sending me a letter about the appointment, and the only reason I became aware of it in the first place was because I check ebenefits religiously. After about two hours of phone calls (i.e. I called a bunch of numbers and no one answered the phone) I finally found out that the appointment was for an echocardiogram. I thought this was somewhat strange, considering I recently had an echocardiogram done and the results from that test were what started the whole MEB process in the first place! I was able to contact the the local VA doctor that scheduled the appointment, explained the situation and sent him the test results, and was told "Great, that's exactly what they need. It must have been left out of the file on accident. Send the information to us and we'll forward it to Seattle and you don't need to go to your appointment." Fast forward a month and there's been no indication that that Seattle ever received the information, I'm still scheduled for another echo according to ebenefits, and no one returns my calls at the VA. The local office says that they sent the information, the VA 1-800 number says they have no record of information being sent or received by Seattle, and my Peblo says that he can't do anything because it's a VA issue. And of course I can't just call Seattle or send them the paperwork directly since they don't publish any contact information whatsoever. What a great system.
 
nab73 said:
Let me be the one billionth (approximate guess) person to comment on how jacked up the Seattle VA has been in processing my claim so far...I received my unfit memo in early March, with one unfitting cardiac condition. A few weeks later the VA came back and said that they needed an additional test to evaluate my claim and sent it back to my local VA office (where I had the C&P exams done) to schedule the test. Of course they scheduled it without ever notifying me or sending me a letter about the appointment, and the only reason I became aware of it in the first place was because I check ebenefits religiously. After about two hours of phone calls (i.e. I called a bunch of numbers and no one answered the phone) I finally found out that the appointment was for an echocardiogram. I thought this was somewhat strange, considering I recently had an echocardiogram done and the results from that test were what started the whole MEB process in the first place! I was able to contact the the local VA doctor that scheduled the appointment, explained the situation and sent him the test results, and was told "Great, that's exactly what they need. It must have been left out of the file on accident. Send the information to us and we'll forward it to Seattle and you don't need to go to your appointment." Fast forward a month and there's been no indication that that Seattle ever received the information, I'm still scheduled for another echo according to ebenefits, and no one returns my calls at the VA. The local office says that they sent the information, the VA 1-800 number says they have no record of information being sent or received by Seattle, and my Peblo says that he can't do anything because it's a VA issue. And of course I can't just call Seattle or send them the paperwork directly since they don't publish any contact information whatsoever. What a great system.
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You can send it to them directly by fax(which you can get by contact the va 1800#) and also by mail
 
Combat Eng said:
You can send it to them directly by fax(which you can get by contact the va 1800#) and also by mail
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Thanks for the info! I'll call the 1-800 number again and see if I get a VA rep who can (or is willing and able) to provide me with that info. Every time I talk to one of them I get a different story of what's going on!
 
Just relaying what information I was given. If you think that you'll get somewhere by complaining after 30, 60 or even 80 days, go for it. You think I wasn't saying/doing anything then? I was and nothing happened. Only when it becomes an unreasonable length will someone go out of their way for you.

I just got a call saying I will be receiving my ratings finally today. 145 days later and finally they will be back!!
 
tonyfromnj said:
Just relaying what information I was given. If you think that you'll get somewhere by complaining after 30, 60 or even 80 days, go for it. You think I wasn't saying/doing anything then? I was and nothing happened. Only when it becomes an unreasonable length will someone go out of their way for you.

I just got a call saying I will be receiving my ratings finally today. 145 days later and finally they will be back!!
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Did your ebennies change at all?
 
Yes, today it went from "gathering of evidence' to "review of evidence" then an hour later to "Prep for Decision" and just 15 minutes ago to "Pending Decision Approval"!!
 
tonyfromnj said:
Yes, today it went from "gathering of evidence' to "review of evidence" then an hour later to "Prep for Decision" and just 15 minutes ago to "Pending Decision Approval"!!
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wow that fast makes you think why they had you waiting so long
 
nab73 said:
Thanks for the info! I'll call the 1-800 number again and see if I get a VA rep who can (or is willing and able) to provide me with that info. Every time I talk to one of them I get a different story of what's going on!
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By fax: 206 220 6209

By mail: U.S Department of Veteran Affairs
Seattle VA Regional Office
Federal Building
915 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA 98174
 
frankiece79 said:
It's been 150 days since my unfit memo and 170 since I signed my Narsum. I've gotten over waiting, but in a month my daughter graduates and I will not miss that. These are the things that matter in life that this process doesn't allow for. I've missed every other milestone in her life because of deployments. I refuse to miss this one!!!
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....and roger. I'm hoping and praying, doing whatever i can to make things happen because in my experience, i have the WORST luck in the world when i comes to timing. Best of luck to you.
 
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