If you want to submit a VARR, you do not have to request a formal board. HOWEVER, you will be expected to submit the VARR with your election of options if you are not requesting a formal hearing. Thus, it is often prudent to request a formal hearing to provide you and your counsel with sufficient time to draft a VARR or to bolster it with any new medical or non-medical evidence that you may acquire while awaiting a hearing date.
When you are ready, you can always withdraw the formal hearing request and submit a new election of options, accepting the IPEB findings and requesting a VARR. You would then attach the VARR to this election of options. Note- you always want to submit the VARR and new election of options at least two days before your hearing date so that the board members do not waste their time preparing for a hearing that will not be held.
Key point: there are many PEBLOs out there who will tell you that this tactic is not permissible, but they are simply unaware that both military and civilian counsel use this technique on a daily basis. However, as a civilian counsel who has been representing service members in the IDES process for the past 16 years in about 1200 cases, I can assure that this tactic is an effective one that board members actually appreciate. After all, if you were a board member with 20 hearings scheduled next week and 6 to 8 of these cases were withdrawn from the formal docket because members submitted a new election of options accompanied by a VARR, would you be disappointed at having a lighter workload?
