On July 9, 2026, 2,582 Direct Review appeals filed in 2021 were still waiting for a Board decision. In the year before that date, the typical Direct Review decision went to an appeal filed in March 2025.

The law says that shouldn't happen. Under 38 U.S.C. 7107(a)(4), each case "will be decided in regular order according to its respective place on the docket." That's first in, first out, inside each of the three Board dockets.

The numbers come from the Board of Veterans' Appeals itself. Wesley McCauley of United Veteran's Disability got them through a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA 26-19815-F) and published them with his analysis, What Line? What the Board's Own Data Says About Docket Order. Military-Veterans Advocacy covered it a few days later. His work is worth reading in full.

I did two things with his files. First, I checked his numbers. Second, I matched the Board's list of decisions to the decisions themselves, using the 1,871,000+ Board decisions in Claim Raven's library. That adds what the FOIA files don't have: each ruling's outcome, the size of the case, whether a hearing happened and when, the judge, and whether the appeal was advanced.

What the Board released

The Board sent two spreadsheets on August 25, 2026:

  • Pending appeals: 141,729 appeals waiting as of July 9, 2026.
  • Decided appeals: 238,265 decisions sent out from January 1, 2020, through July 9, 2026.
  • Columns: docket number, docket (Direct Review, Evidence Submission or Hearing), date the Board received the appeal, and for decided appeals, the date the decision went out.
  • Removed by the Board: appeals advanced on the docket (the lawful fast lane for veterans 75 and older, serious illness or severe financial hardship) and appeals sent back by the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

What's left is exactly the group the statute says should move in order.

His numbers hold up

I recomputed McCauley's main figures from the raw files and got the same results, within a tenth of a point where duplicate docket numbers make a small difference:

  • Appeals filed in 2023 that have a decision: 89.4% on Direct Review, 79.7% on Evidence Submission, 4.1% on the Hearing docket.
  • The Hearing docket's share: 58% of everything pending, 22% of decisions.
  • Appeals docketed October 5, 2020, on the Hearing docket: 73 decided, 3 still pending. That's the docket date of the veteran in Cartwright v. Collins, the case McCauley is helping bring.
  • Hearing docket share of decisions by half year: 8.6% in the second half of 2024, 3.9% and 3.6% in 2025, then 44.8% in the first half of 2026.

Appeals still waiting, by the year they were filed

On July 9, 2026, these older appeals were still waiting in the two dockets that the Board decides fastest:

  • Direct Review: 2,582 filed in 2021, 3,659 filed in 2022, 2,240 filed in 2023 and 2,179 filed in 2024.
  • Evidence Submission: 2,922 filed in 2021, 2,269 filed in 2022, 1,966 filed in 2023 and 2,447 filed in 2024.

Meanwhile, the typical Direct Review decision in the prior 12 months went to an appeal filed March 3, 2025, and the typical Evidence Submission decision to one filed March 11, 2024. In that same year, Direct Review decisions went to appeals received anywhere from January 2, 2019, to May 29, 2026.

The outcome does not set the wait

The Board's usual answer is that every case is different and hard cases take longer. If that were the reason, grants, denials and remands would wait different amounts of time.

They don't. I matched 150,666 decisions from the two years before July 9, 2026, to their text and read the outcome of every ruling. The median wait from the day the Board received the appeal to the day the decision went out:

  • Direct Review: 546 days for decisions with a grant, 559 for denials, 583 for remands, 533 for a mix of denials and remands.
  • Evidence Submission: 943 days for grants, 854 for denials, 929 for remands, 915 for mixed.

Within each docket, the result barely moves the wait. McCauley made the same point with an earlier FOIA production of 64,528 decisions. This is more than twice that size, with outcomes read from the decisions themselves.

Bigger cases don't wait longer either

Another way to test "hard cases take longer" is case size. A decision that rules on nine issues is more work than one that rules on one.

  • Direct Review: decisions with one ruling waited a median of 625 days. Decisions with nine or more rulings waited 505.
  • Evidence Submission: the median stayed between 898 and 993 days whatever the number of rulings.

If anything, the biggest Direct Review cases were decided a little sooner.

Two of the famous line jumps were dismissals

McCauley highlights two appeals that jumped far ahead:

  • Docket 260402-643565, Direct Review: decided 25 days after the Board received it. The decision is citation A26038770. It dismisses the appeal.
  • Docket 260209-635676, Hearing: decided 59 days after receipt. The decision is citation A26033231. It also dismisses the appeal.

A dismissal usually means the veteran withdrew, died, or the Board found it had no authority to hear the issue. The Board handles those when they arrive. Neither one is a veteran getting a faster ruling on the merits.

On the Hearing docket, the biggest jumps are mostly withdrawals

For every decision, I counted how many older appeals in the same docket were still waiting on the day it went out. Then I split each docket's decisions from the last two years into four equal groups, from most in order to most out of order.

On the Hearing docket, the most out-of-order group looks very different from the rest:

  • 70.8% of those decisions only dismissed the appeal.
  • Of the 4,081 of those dismissals I could read the reason for, 3,023 were veterans withdrawing.
  • The median decision in that group was 545 words, about a page.

Withdrawals leaving the line early isn't line jumping. It doesn't clear the Hearing docket, though. Hearing docket decisions that actually ruled on the claim in the last year still went out while a median of 2,825 older Hearing appeals were waiting.

On Direct Review and Evidence Submission, the jumps are ordinary decisions

Direct Review and Evidence Submission tell a different story:

  • In the most out-of-order group, 88.4% of Direct Review decisions and 82.7% of Evidence Submission decisions ruled on the claim (grant, deny or remand).
  • Their grant rate matched the rest. On Direct Review, 34.5% of the most out-of-order decisions granted something, against 34.7% and 34.6% in the middle two groups.
  • In the year before July 9, 2026, Direct Review decisions on the claim went out while a median of 15,490 older Direct Review appeals were still waiting. For Evidence Submission, the median was 10,609.
  • Fewer than 1 in 200 of those decisions went out with under 1,000 older appeals waiting.

Switching dockets doesn't explain it either. A veteran who switches keeps the original date. In the 187,221 decisions where the text names the docket the veteran chose, it differs from the Board's docket in 0.9%.

It's the whole Board, not a few judges

If a handful of judges were pulling newer cases, the fix would be narrow. That isn't what the decisions show.

120 Veterans Law Judges signed at least 100 Direct Review decisions on the claim in the year before July 9, 2026. For every one of them, the typical decision went out while at least 11,718 older Direct Review appeals were waiting. For half of them, the figure was between 14,686 and 16,751.

That points to how cases reach judges, not to individual judges choosing.

Hearing docket appeals waited more than a year after their hearing

VA's defense in the Hearing docket cases has been capacity: too many appeals, not enough judges. The decision texts let me test one piece of that. Board decisions on the Hearing docket usually say when the hearing happened.

The Board decided 20,032 Hearing docket appeals in the first half of 2026. For 5,406 of them, the decision gives an exact hearing date:

  • 88% of those decisions came more than a year after the hearing.
  • Half came more than 18 months after it. The median gap was 547 days.
  • About two in three of those hearings were held between April and December 2024.

For Hearing docket decisions between July 2023 and December 2024, about 15% came more than a year after the hearing. The usual gap was about four to five months.

So in 2025, when the Hearing docket got less than 4% of the Board's decisions, thousands of Hearing docket veterans had already had their hearing. Their evidence window had closed. Their appeals still waited another year.

According to McCauley, the veteran in Cartwright asked the court to make the Board produce hearing dates and other readiness data, and the court denied that request as premature on June 4, 2026. The public decisions already contain part of that information for appeals that were decided.

The fast lane: about one in five decisions go to advanced appeals

The Board's files leave out advanced and court-remanded appeals. Our library includes them, so I can measure the lane the files don't show.

Advanced appeals are lawful. A veteran who is 75 or older, seriously ill or in severe financial hardship can be moved ahead. Here's how big that lane is:

  • Share of the Board's modern-system decisions: about 24% in 2024, 21% in 2025 and 21% in 2026 through July 9 went to advanced appeals. Court remands were another 2% to 5%.
  • Speed, year before July 9, 2026: advanced appeals were decided a median of 106 days after the Board received them on Direct Review, against 332 days for regular appeals. On Evidence Submission, 131 days against 699. On the Hearing docket, 316 days against 1,845.
  • Who: 74% of advanced decisions involve Vietnam-era service, against 9% of regular ones. That fits advancement for age.

Most advanced decisions never say they were advanced. Fewer than one in five states it. I counted the rest as advanced because the Board's own files leave them out, the decisions don't describe a court remand, and they look like the stated group in era and speed. Treat that part as a strong inference, not a Board label.

What this means for your appeal

  • Your docket choice matters more than anything else you control. Over the last year, the median decision came 326 days after the Board received the appeal on Direct Review, 594 days on Evidence Submission and 1,812 days on the Hearing docket.
  • If you're 75 or older, ask to be advanced. Under 38 C.F.R. 20.902(c), you or your representative can ask the Board to advance your appeal for age (75 or older), serious illness, severe financial hardship or other sufficient cause. Advanced Hearing docket appeals were decided in about a sixth of the regular time.
  • You may be able to switch. Under 38 C.F.R. 20.202(c)(2), you can change dockets by filing a new VA Form 10182 within one year of the decision you're appealing or 60 days after the Board received your appeal, whichever is later. You can't switch after you've submitted evidence or testimony to the Board.
  • You can see roughly where you stand. Enter your docket number or filing date in the Board line checker. It shows how many older appeals in your docket were still waiting on July 9, 2026, how many newer ones were already decided, and how far the Board had gotten on appeals filed around your date.

What this data can't show

  • Why the Board works this way. The files show appeals are not decided in the order they were received inside each docket. They don't show whether the Board has a reason, such as when a case is considered ready. That's a question for the Board and the courts.
  • Appeals that closed without a decision. They aren't in either file.
  • Hearing dates for pending appeals. Only decided appeals have hearing dates, and only when the decision states one.
  • Anything after July 9, 2026. The files stop there.

Questions about the Board's docket order

Does the BVA decide appeals in the order they were filed?

Not in practice. The law says each docket is decided in regular order, but the Board's own records show that in the year before July 9, 2026, Direct Review decisions went to appeals received anywhere from January 2019 to May 2026.

Which Board docket is fastest?

Over the year before July 9, 2026, the median decision came 326 days after the Board received the appeal on Direct Review, 594 days on Evidence Submission and 1,812 days on the Hearing docket.

Can I switch my Board docket?

Yes, within one year of the decision you're appealing or 60 days after the Board received your appeal, whichever is later, and only before you've submitted evidence or testimony. You file a new VA Form 10182 (38 C.F.R. 20.202(c)(2)).

How do I get my appeal advanced on the docket?

You or your representative can file a motion if you're 75 or older, seriously ill, in severe financial hardship, or for other sufficient cause (38 C.F.R. 20.902(c)).

How much faster are advanced BVA appeals?

In the year before July 9, 2026, advanced appeals were decided a median of 106 days after the Board received them on Direct Review, against 332 days for regular appeals, and 316 days against 1,845 on the Hearing docket. Veterans 75 or older, seriously ill or in severe financial hardship can ask to be advanced (38 C.F.R. 20.902(c)).

Sources and method

  • Board data: FOIA response 26-19815-F, August 25, 2026, published by Wesley McCauley with his analysis. Pending appeals as of July 9, 2026 (141,729 rows) and decisions sent January 1, 2020, through July 9, 2026 (238,265 rows).
  • Decision texts: Claim Raven's library of 1,871,000+ published Board decisions. 350,951 decisions from the modern appeals system list a docket number.
  • Matching: a decision counts as matched when its docket number matches and its decision date is within 14 days of the Board's dispatch date. 218,614 decisions matched (91.8% of the Board's file). Matching is above 99% for 2020 through 2024 and about 85% for 2025 and 2026, because some recent decisions aren't in our library yet (va.gov has not posted May 2026, for example).
  • Older appeals waiting: for each decision, the number of appeals in the same docket received on an earlier day and not yet decided on the dispatch day. I rechecked 40 random decisions by hand-count and all 40 matched.
  • Outcomes, case size, judge, service era and stated advancement: read by code from each decision's order, signature and text. Dismissal reasons and part of the court history were read with a question-answering model.
  • Hearing dates: read from sentences such as "A Board hearing was held on" with an exact date.
  • Advanced appeals: stated when the decision says so; inferred when the decision is from the modern system, its docket number isn't in either Board file, and the decision doesn't describe a court remand.

Disclaimer

I'm not a lawyer, a VA-accredited representative or a VSO. This is data analysis, not legal advice. Wait times describe past appeals and don't predict yours. If you need help with your appeal, work with an accredited representative.

Where to go next

-Landon Founder, Claim Raven | U.S. Army Veteran