Before addressing some of the posts below, I will share my overall experience. I have done many dozens of BCMR/BCNR applications over the past 12 years or so (some as original applications, some on remand from the Court of Federal Claims).
My experience has been that a year or so for a decision is a good and "relatively fast" outcome. It seems to me that the times are taking longer now than in years before.
As far as getting "updates" it is very difficult to get any updates. The phone numbers/emails/written requests really don't regularly get responses.
As far as Congressional inquiries, my experience and view of cases have been that this rarely helps and may well tend to slow cases down. Rarely have I seen this to have been an effective route to a faster outcome. I tend to think this is not a helpful method to get a faster or better outcome.
The only sure fire method to get faster consideration on a case and with specific timelines, in my experience, is to file a complaint in the Court of Federal Claims and to get the Court to order a remand with a specific timeline for a decision (usually within 6 months). In some cases, this makes sense to pursue. But, by no means is this the preffered course of action. The facts and circumstances of each case matter. And there are "outlier" cases that take much less or much more time. I have had a single case resolve before the BCMR in 45 days. I have had cases take 2-3 years. If you count Court of Federal Claims cases, I have had cases take 5-6 years to get a "final" decision.
Kontum6870...do you happen to know what happens "IF" the ABCMR takes longer than 18 months to complete a case? Currently, I have filed my case 533 days ago (Feb 1, 2016 was when my packet was received). By my math, 30 days * 18 months is 540 days, so in a week from now, it will be past the 18 month time frame. I'm not sure if that means they are carefully considering it or just putting it off in the hopes I go away. I emailed them a few times to try and get a status update and one time a board analyst actually replied saying that my case was presented well but that it could take up to 12 months. In an effort not to bug them, I thanked him, let him know I was available any time for any questions or concerns or available for an at-no-govt-cost in-person appeal to the board, and then did not respond again as of yet.
As mentioned above, the only way to get clear visibility and potentially a sooner outcome in my experience is to file a complaint in the US Court of Federal Claims and have judicial oversight of the timeline. This may be expensive and is not always the right approach. Sometimes it takes a long time (way too long).
Submit a Congressional.
That's your last hope for a timely completion. Hold their feet to the fire.
Not a good approach in my experience. If it works, great. My experience is it is not the preferred approach and may well slow things down. (Also, for what its worth, there is some likely difference between the attention paid to various Members of Congress. A first term Representative or Senator likely has no juice. A sitting senior member on the House or Senate Armed Services Committee likely carries more "juice." While my opinion does not change overall on the value of going the "Congressional" route, it does shift a bit depending on which Member of Congress is involved.
I hear you! My ABCMR case is at the 15 month mark and I've yet to hear anything other than my docket number in the beginning. I have a lawyer but she gets the same automated answers I get from email and the phone number. I would just like a "Hey yes! We're working your case, it's not lost in the wind somewhere"...but nothing and no avenues to take to find out anything. I search these forums and see people talked with so and so and ......WHO did you talk to and HOW did you get in touch with a live person?????? If you know of any avenues I could take I would appreciate it very much if you would share with me as I'm out of ideas to get some answers.
At the just over the12 month mark I sent an email and received this:
Sir,
You have an open application is identified as AR # that is being reviewed by the staff of the Board to ensure it complies with applicable statutes and governing Army regulations before presentation to
the Board.
We process over 22,000 applications a year. Based on this volume and our commitment to justice, we strive to complete most applications within 12 months of its receipt date. Unfortunately, due to an increase in
volume and influx of complex cases it currently taking 12 months or more for cases to be completed. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records will notify you of the Board's decision by separate correspondence.
v/r
Every 4 months I've emailed and received a "it's processing". Since its a different email I've been trying to decode this email all morning.
Hurry up and wait. Actually, you are ahead of the game for getting a response at all. I am not convinced or even thinking that the response you got was meaningful. I doubt it impacted the timeline for your result. My guess is they sent a "form" letter response in hopes you would stop contacting them.
I hope I am wrong. I just have no reason to think it matters much, either way.
Well, one of the analysts finally wrote me back to a status inquiry I posted 2 months ago. 1 Feb 2016 was when the ABCMR first acknowledged receipt of all my documents. He let me know that my case has been sent to an analyst for "boarding" which he explained means my case is in the final stages. No mention of how much longer it will take, but it is now just a little over the 18 month mark.
Keeping my fingers crossed. I will let everyone here know the results.
Please let us know how things progress. I think the final answer is the same to the question of "how long is a piece of string?" The answer is "however long it is."
Well, originally I emailed
[email protected] to ask about the status. I did this at the 6,7, and 8 month mark only to get a generic reply. Finally after the 4th time, one of the analysts reviewing my case responded and told me it could take up to a year. He mentioned my case was well presented and wished me luck in the decision. So, I thanked him and waited till 13 months before replying to follow-up. Just now (at the 18th month mark), he responded apologizing for the time it took and let me know my case was sent up for "boarding". Not sure if that helps or not.
Same comments as above. Not sure any of this matters. Hope I am wrong. Just have not seen any difference in proccessing based on the contact like you got.
Print out a copy of that email and have an elected official have them decode it for you.
Go to house.gov or senate.gov and find your local officials, print out the privacy release on their page, sign it, scan it, and fax it to them and include a copy of that letter and your struggle.
They'll inquire on your behalf and it'll magically get prioritized.
As mentioned above, I doubt this helps and actually, I think it may slow things down.
Well, I am going to wait a few more weeks. The issues I see with going to your Congress person are:
1. It takes time and effort. In my case, there is a lot of information and it can not just easily be explained in a couple pages (my packet was over 100 pages including attachments). Trying to summarize it or explain it to a disinterested party is a pain.
2. NOONE in the Army likes it when a Congressional Inquiry comes in. I am speaking from personal experience here being in the Army 12+ years. It detracts time and resources from the mission and is an overall "pain" for the unit being investigated, for whatever the issue is. From what I have seen, most Commander's wont bend a knee to nosey legislators getting up in their business; in fact, they most likely get annoyed by it. As such, I don't see that necessarily "helping" my case. Sure it might speed up the process, but who is not to say that the analysts/board members/decision makers wont take offense to being hurried, investigated(usually the unit will have an investigative officer put in charge of the inquiry and question persons of interest), and called out for not doing their jobs and take it out on the person who was responsible for making them look bad(e.g. the person who contacted the Congressman who they will infer is inevitably the person the whose case they are trying to speed up)? I don't have a ton of faith in a lot of the GS Civ's (I know because I am a contractor and they are all around me and I see a sweeping generalized worth ethic and mentality in their words and actions.), so NOT ticking them off is the general rule of thumb, especially when it comes to matters of your career or money. You might think this would be illegal, but unspoken reprisal DOES happen in the Army; it's just masked or justified in one way or another.
The best I can figure is that the DASEB and ARBA boards are lawfully subjective at best. You can present your best case, but from the hundreds of cases I have read, the genuine care and attention to detail is not always there and truthfully, they can rule on their decisions any way they want because they know the process is painfully time-consuming and most do not have the tenacity or means to want to do an appeal or take it to a higher court. So leaving my Congressman out is the way to go for me. He has enough problems already to fix in my home state.
I agree with your thoughts.
What I suggested was that in MY experience, Congressional Inquiries did not generally benefit the person who they were in reference to. I am not sure if maybe you were in outstanding units where the entire organization and leadership personnel were always moral, adhered to every regulation to the letter, and were always fair and impartial in all their decisions and the handling of Congressional Inquiries. If so, that is great.
Yes, if it works to involve Members of Congress, then great! My experience is that it is not helpful (and may slow things). But, no one can know the impact or say for sure about this. People are free to pursue whatever course of action they think makes most sense for them.
Regarding timelines, ABCMR, 21 months and waiting....Congressional interest in this case simply ignored.
Not sure about Navy or Airforce timelines.
Only good news I have is that over more than a dozen years of filing cases before the BCMR, I have had only a few cases that were "lost" in terms of them not acknowledging or processing cases filed, but, after following up, got relatively expedited consideration of the case. Just yesterday, I got a contact from the BCMR on a case that I filed more than 2 years ago.
Bottom line, the BCMR/BCNR is not a fast process. It is widely variable in processing and decision timelines. The only way to "force" quicker response in my opinion (and based on my experience) is via filing a complaint in Federal Court. This is not necessarily the best idea (can be expensive). Only time I really think filing with the US Court of Federal Claims is a necessary step is when you are running into potential statute of limitations issues.
This subject is complicate and very fact dependent. What is not in dispute is that the appeals process can take a long time.
Hope my input has been helpful to folks! Best of luck to everyone!