Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This section describes circumstances in which failure to provide requested evidence or respond as required can lead VA to treat a claim as abandoned. It also addresses particular examination and whereabouts situations.
Abandonment can affect whether a later award relates back to an earlier application. The exact request, notice, response history, and applicable exception should be checked before assuming a claim was abandoned correctly.
How this helps your claim
This helps you reconstruct what VA asked for and what happened afterward. Missing correspondence or an overlooked response is a specific factual issue to identify, rather than assuming a pending claim remained open indefinitely.
What to check in your records
Use your decision, examination reports, and relevant records to check the following points.
- Locate the request letter and the evidence or action it required.
- Find response receipts, examination correspondence, and address-change records.
- Compare VA's abandonment finding with the complete dated history.
Reconstruct the request before assessing abandonment
An abandonment issue should be reviewed through the actual correspondence. Identify what VA requested, where the notice was sent, the applicable response period and what was received. A brief online status description may not show those details.
Make a chronological list of submissions and keep their receipts. If the decision says an item was not provided, compare that statement with the evidence and any explanation of difficulty obtaining it. A clear timeline helps distinguish a missing response from an overlooked submission or a dispute about notice.
Is an abandoned claim the same as a denial on the evidence?
They are different procedural situations. Abandonment concerns failure to take a required step under the applicable rule, while a merits decision addresses entitlement. The distinction can affect later filing and effective-date questions, so read the actual basis for closing the matter rather than assuming the labels are interchangeable.
Official regulatory text
38 CFR § 3.158
eCFR snapshot: September 3, 2026. Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The full section and its tables are included below.
§ 3.158 Abandoned claims.
(a) General. Except as provided in § 3.652, where evidence requested in connection with an initial claim or supplemental claim or for the purpose of determining continued entitlement is not furnished within 1 year after the date of request, the claim will be considered abandoned. After the expiration of 1 year, further action will not be taken unless a new claim is received. Should the right to benefits be finally established, pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or monetary allowance under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 based on such evidence shall commence not earlier than the date of filing the new claim.
(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501)
(b) Department of Veterans Affairs examinations. Where the veteran fails without adequate reason to respond to an order to report for Department of Veterans Affairs examination within 1 year from the date of request and payments have been discontinued, the claim for such benefits will be considered abandoned.
(c) Disappearance. Where payments of pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or monetary allowance under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 have not been made or have been discontinued because a payee's present whereabouts is unknown, payments will be resumed effective the day following the date of last payment if entitlement is otherwise established, upon receipt of a valid current address.
Cross References:
Periodic certification of continued eligibility. See § 3.652. Failure to report for VA examination. See § 3.655. Disappearance of veteran. See § 3.656.
[27 FR 11887, Dec. 1, 1962, as amended at 28 FR 13362, Dec. 10, 1963; 52 FR 43063, Nov. 9, 1987; 62 FR 51278, Sept. 30, 1997; 67 FR 49586, July 31, 2002; 84 FR 169, Jan. 18, 2019]
Related references
- 38 CFR § 3.655: Missing a VA Exam and Good Cause
- 38 CFR § 4.1: What a VA disability rating measures
- 38 CFR § 3.159: VA duty to assist: records and examinations
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