A second reader, and the same file

Higher-Level Review asks a more senior adjudicator to look again at the decision and decide whether it contains an error or warrants a different conclusion.

You cannot submit new evidence. That is the defining feature of this lane, not a technicality, and it is the single most common reason an HLR disappoints someone. The reviewer sees the record as it stood. VA's HLR guidance and VA Form 20-0996.

When it is the right lane

When the evidence needed was already there and something went wrong with it: a record in the file that went unmentioned, a report read as saying something it does not say, or the wrong legal standard applied to facts that were not really in dispute.

The useful question is narrow: what was in the record on the date of that decision, and what did VA do with it?

The informal conference

You can request a one-time informal conference to point the reviewer at the specific problem. It is worth using when you can name the error precisely. It does not turn HLR into an open-evidence review — you still cannot add anything, and describing a document you have not filed does not put it in the record.

Limits

• Within 1 year of the decision on your initial claim or Supplemental Claim.
• You cannot request a second HLR after an HLR or a Board appeal on the same issue. Other routes may remain; check your decision notice.

If what you actually need is to add a medical opinion or records, compare the Supplemental Claim and the Board dockets. This page explains the lane; it does not tell you which one fits your record. Find accredited help for that.

Reviewed October 6, 2026