BDD claim checklist: 180 to 90 days out

You can file your VA disability claim while you're still in uniform, and VA aims to decide it within 30 days of your getting out. The window to do that opens 180 days before your separation date and closes at 90.

If you're getting out in the next six months and plan to file a VA disability claim, you don't have to wait until you're a civilian. VA's Benefits Delivery at Discharge program, or BDD, lets you file while you're still on full-time active duty. The window opens 180 days before your separation date and closes at 90.

The point is speed. File inside the window and VA can review your records, hold your exams and evaluate your claim while you're still in. Its goal is a decision within 30 days after you separate. That's a goal, not a promise, and it comes with a condition: you have to be available for VA exams for 45 days after you file.

For free help with your individual claim, contact an accredited VSO representative.

Your window, counted from your separation date

Everything in BDD counts back from one date: your separation date, the day you expect to be released from active duty. You give it to VA in item 8 of VA Form 21-526EZ, the disability claim form. On the SHA Part A, VA's guidance tells Guard and Reserve members leaving active-duty orders to give the end date of their orders.

Day 180 is the first day of the window. VA's manual checks your timing on the day you file, so day 180 is the earliest a claim meets BDD's timing rule. The manual says a claim filed more than 180 days before discharge is denied, and VA sends a letter asking you to resubmit, unless you're inside 180 days by the time VA catches it. VA's form encourages filing as close to day 180 as you can, so your exams can be scheduled and finished before you leave.

Day 90 is the last day. It's the cutoff for filing as BDD, and also the last day to add conditions to a BDD claim. Conditions added later are handled outside BDD and may not be processed until after you're discharged.

Who can use BDD

VA lists three requirements, and you need all of them. You're on full-time active duty. You have a known separation date with 180 to 90 days left. And you can go to VA exams within 45 days of filing. Guard, Reserve and Coast Guard members on full-time active duty count.

The Guard and Reserve rules aren't worded the same way everywhere. VA's claim form names Active Guard Reserve (AGR) members serving under Title 10 and full-time Guard AGR members under Title 32. VA's manual says any service member on active duty may file a pre-discharge claim. VA's health assessment guidance tells Guard and Reserve members leaving active-duty orders who file BDD to give their orders' end date. No VA source names a mobilized reservist who isn't AGR in so many words. If that's you, an accredited representative can confirm whether BDD fits your orders.

Even if you meet all three requirements, some claims can't go through BDD. VA.gov and VA's claims manual list these:

• You need case management for a serious injury or illness, including the loss of a body part.
• You're terminally ill.
• You're waiting to be discharged while hospitalized at a VA hospital or military treatment facility.
• VA has to decide your character of discharge.
• You can't go to VA exams during the 45 days after you file.
• You need a VA exam in a foreign country. These are generally excluded, but not when VA's BDD office at Landstuhl, Germany, or Camp Humphreys, Korea, requests the exam. Those exams can take place in several foreign countries, so members stationed overseas can use BDD through these offices.
• You're actively enrolled in IDES, the joint medical board process covered below.

Look closely at the first item. VA's program page says "seriously ill or injured," but VA.gov and the manual frame the test as needing case management. If you're not sure where you stand, an accredited representative can check.

What to send

You file on VA Form 21-526EZ. In the U.S., VA says to file online or with the help of an accredited representative, and its BDD page says claims filed on VA.gov are processed faster. On the form, you choose "BDD Program Claim" in item 1.

VA's BDD program page lists these documents:

• The Separation Health Assessment Part A self-assessment
• A copy of your service treatment records (STRs) from your current period of service
• Dental records, and mental health records if they apply
• DD-214s from any earlier periods of service, plus the one for this period once it's issued
• Any other records, personnel or otherwise, that document the injuries, illnesses or events
• Birth certificates for your spouse and dependent children, if they apply
• Direct deposit details: your bank's name, its routing number and your account number

The Separation Health Assessment, or SHA, is one separation exam that serves both VA's claim process and the military's separation process. Part A is a health history questionnaire you fill out yourself, before your exam. Part B is the clinical exam, where the examiner reviews your Part A and your STRs. For BDD and IDES filers, VA does the SHA. For everyone else, including anyone with fewer than 90 days left, DoD does it, and VA says to contact your nearest military treatment facility.

Use VA's current Part A form. It's dated June 2, 2026, and runs 17 pages. Copies hosted on other sites can be older versions. Give a cell phone number and personal email that will work through your move, then sign and date it. If you had a prior SHA, an entry-level physical, a flight physical or a special duty physical in the 12 months before your release, you can ask on Part A for it to be reviewed, and the examining clinician decides whether it satisfies the SHA.

If your Part A is missing, VA's manual tells staff to contact you rather than drop the claim from BDD right away, but VA won't request your exams until it arrives. A claim with no Part A by the 90-day mark is excluded.

Service treatment records are where VA's sources disagree. VA.gov's pre-discharge page says that if you file online, VA gets your STRs for you, and only paper filers need to send a copy. VA's BDD program page, the 21-526EZ instructions and VA's evidence page all list a copy as something you provide.

If an online claim arrives without your STRs, VA's manual has staff ask you for them or help get them from your military treatment facility, and VA won't request your exams until they arrive. If they're still missing on day 89 before discharge, the claim leaves BDD. VA's BDD page also says you'll want a complete set of your STRs for your own records. Send records only to VA: through VA.gov, with the paper form, or as your BDD intake site instructs. Don't upload them to any other site.

The 45 days of exams

BDD exams happen while you're still on active duty, and you have to be free to attend for 45 days after you file. VA.gov counts the 45 days from the date you submit your claim, and VA's manual counts them from the date VA receives it. The manual's own example: for a claim received on January 3, you must be available from January 3 through February 17. Plan to be free starting the day you submit. If leave, travel or a move would keep you from exams in that stretch, VA lists that as a reason a claim can't go through BDD.

Exams can come fast. Contract examiners may schedule them as soon as VA's request arrives. Your local VA medical center or a VA contractor mails you a letter with the date and time, and you may also get a call or email.

If you have to reschedule, tell the medical center or contractor at least 48 hours ahead. With a contractor, you can reschedule each exam only once, and the new appointment must be within 5 days of the original. Missing an exam delays your claim, and VA may decide it on the evidence it already has.

Two rules work in your favor. VA doesn't penalize BDD filers who can't finish certain exams, such as sleep studies, before discharge. And if you can't attend within the 45 days because of a delay on VA's part, the manual says the claim stays in BDD. Before you're released, VA asks that you finish every phase of the VA and Defense Department separation exam process.

When VA decides, and when benefits start

BDD's goal is a decision within 30 days after separation. VA's program page and its claims manual both call it a goal, not a promise.

The date your benefits count from, called the effective date, doesn't depend on how fast VA decides. VA's claim form says that if VA got your claim before you separated, or within a year after, entitlement runs from the day after your separation date, as long as the disability was present then. Federal law sets the day after discharge for claims received within a year of discharge. VA's regulation says the day after separation, or the date entitlement arose.

Payment follows a set rule. VA can't pay compensation for any period before the first day of the month after the month your award takes effect, and it never pays for time on active duty.

If you're retiring, one more part of the form matters. Filing the 21-526EZ waives military retired pay equal to any VA compensation you're awarded, if you're entitled to both. The waiver doesn't apply if you qualify for concurrent receipt. An accredited representative can explain how that works in your case.

If you have fewer than 90 days

Missing day 90 closes BDD, not your claim. "Pre-discharge claim" is VA's term for any claim from someone still on active duty, and BDD is one kind. With fewer than 90 days left, you can still file before you separate. VA processes the claim after you're out, as a fully developed claim or a standard claim.

A fully developed claim means you send all the evidence you have and certify there's nothing more. If VA finds it needs other non-federal records, it moves the claim to the standard process, where VA helps gather the evidence. That can take longer.

There's no time limit on filing a claim after you're out, but timing still matters. If VA receives your claim within a year of separation, the effective date can be as early as the day after you separated. After a year, and with no intent to file first, it's the date VA receives the claim, or the date entitlement arose if that's later.

How IDES is different

If you're wounded, injured or ill and can't do your job, the route is the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, or IDES. You don't choose it. A military doctor refers you to a medical evaluation board, and that's how you enter.

IDES uses one set of exams for both VA and the military. If the physical evaluation board finds you unfit for duty, VA prepares a rating, and IDES gives you a proposed VA disability rating before you leave. If you're then discharged as unfit, VA issues a final rating. VA and the services share a goal of finishing 80 percent of IDES claims in 180 days or less. Your referral package includes VA Form 21-0819, DoD Referral to IDES, which your Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer (PEBLO) completes. VA's Military Services Coordinators at IDES sites answer questions about VA benefits.

Being actively enrolled in IDES rules out BDD. VA's manual adds that members going through a medical or physical evaluation board who aren't enrolled in IDES can still file a pre-discharge claim. If you remain on active duty and are referred into IDES before your planned discharge date after filing BDD, the manual says the BDD claim is closed and you can file through IDES instead. VA's IDES pages also say that if you're found medically unfit for duty, you'll be entitled to Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) services.

Do you need an intent to file?

An intent to file tells VA you plan to file a claim. In VA's general rules, it sets a potential effective date, and you then have 1 year to file the complete claim. If VA gets the complete claim within that year, it treats the claim as filed on the date of the intent to file. It has to name the general benefit, such as compensation, but doesn't have to name any condition.

For a BDD claim, it generally adds nothing. VA's claims manual says an intent to file submitted during active duty just before discharge "generally has no effect." That's because a claim VA receives before you separate already dates from the day after separation. The manual allows for unusual cases, such as several short periods of active duty, where one submitted in service may count. If your service history looks like that, ask an accredited representative.

You may read elsewhere that an intent to file locks in a date while you're still serving. VA's form page says one can secure the earliest possible effective date, but it doesn't address active duty, and the manual's rule is the more specific one.

Free help, and what to ask

VA's Office of General Counsel accredits three kinds of representatives: VSO representatives, attorneys and claims agents. Help from an accredited VSO representative is always free. VA's regulations bar recognized VSOs and their representatives from charging fees. Attorneys and claims agents can charge, but only for work after VA's initial decision, with a fee agreement you both sign and VA Form 21-22a on file.

You can check anyone in VA's Accreditation Search by name, city, state or postal code. You appoint a VSO on VA Form 21-22, or an individual attorney or agent on VA Form 21-22a. If someone who isn't accredited tries to help prepare or present your claim, you can file a complaint.

On base, your Transition Assistance Office, or the Army TAP Center, can help you book a VA benefits briefing, where you learn how to start your claim. VA's claim form also points to your state office of veterans affairs, and VA's line is 1-800-827-1000 (TTY: 711).

VA's public pages don't settle every question. These are ones an accredited representative can answer for your case:

• I'm a reservist on active-duty orders, not AGR. Does BDD fit my orders?
• If I file online, do I still need to send my own copy of my STRs?
• What happens to my claim if my separation date changes after I file?
• How do I get my new DD-214 to VA once it's issued?
• I'm retiring. How does the retired pay waiver work in my case?

One example, start to finish

Example (fictional) Andre Coleman is a 31-year-old Army staff sergeant leaving at the end of his enlistment after 10 years. He isn't in a medical board and doesn't need case management. His separation date is June 30, 2027, and he has two conditions from his treatment records that he plans to claim.

In the fall, his installation's TAP Center helps him book a VA benefits briefing. He finds a VSO representative, checks the name in VA's Accreditation Search and appoints the VSO on VA Form 21-22. It costs him nothing. He fills out VA's current SHA Part A, dated June 2, 2026, and requests his own copy of his STRs early. On January 4 he files online, chooses the BDD claim and enters June 30, 2027, as his release date.

He keeps leave and travel off his calendar through February 18. A contractor's letter sets one exam on a day he can't make, so he calls more than 48 hours ahead and takes a new date within 5 days, his one reschedule for that exam. In March he wants to add a condition he'd left off, and his representative adds it before April 1. He doesn't file a separate intent to file, since VA's manual says one submitted on active duty just before discharge generally has no effect.

After June 30 he gets his DD-214. VA's BDD page lists it among the documents to provide once it's issued, so he asks his representative how to get it to VA. VA's goal is a decision by July 30, 2027. If VA grants any part of the claim, entitlement runs from July 1, 2027, the day after he separated, for any condition present then.

This is general information about how VA's BDD program works, not advice about your claim. It doesn't say which conditions to claim or what rating to expect. For that, an accredited VSO representative can help, and a VSO representative's help on a VA claim is always free. You can check anyone in VA's Accreditation Search, and VA's own line is 1-800-827-1000 (TTY: 711).