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competent professional attorney experienced in these matters. This information is subject to change at any time due to new legislation or new court cases.

THE NEW REGIONAL OFFICE PRESORTED ENVELOPES WITHOUT A POSTMARK DECEIVE THE VETERAN AS TO THE APPEAL DATE.

The Winston-Salem Regional Office (RO) sometimes holds and delays a veteran's mail for up to thirty days before mailing. VA Regulations allow the veteran to begin counting the period for a denial appeal from the day of the VA mailing. Appeal periods range from 30 days to one year. The new style RO envelope shown below has no postmark date, so the veteran cannot know when his appeal is due. In 2014, the Winston-Salem Regional Office began to use these green presorted envelopes. It is possible for the RO to hold the veterans mail beyond the appeal date and then deny that the veteran filed a timely appeal. How can the veteran help himself from such RO Tactics? First, save all RO envelopes with the RO documents mailed in that envelope. Secondly, the veteran must mark the date that any RO envelope was delivered. Thirdly, the veteran must immediately give notice of the facts to the RO if the time for appeal has passed and the veteran must file an appeal immediately.  Fourthly, Veterans should always appeal any VA denial within thirty days since that is the shortest period for an appeal allowed by the VA. Veterans must beware of the new RO envelopes with no postmark date.