There is no deadline to file a PACT Act claim. That is good news. It is also the reason many veterans still have not filed.

The short version

• There is no deadline to file a PACT Act claim. But waiting can cost you back pay.
• If you served in certain places at certain times and have a covered condition, VA assumes the link to service.
• VA added more cancers to the burn pit list in January 2025.
• The law also added conditions and places for Agent Orange.
• If VA denied you before the law changed, you can file again with a Supplemental Claim.
• Start with an Intent to File, VA Form 21-0966.

Why waiting can cost you

Here is the catch. No deadline does not mean waiting is free.

Your effective date is the date VA starts paying from. It usually runs from when you file, not from when you got sick. Every month you wait is a month of back pay you do not get.

At the 100 percent rate, that is $3,938.58 a month for a veteran with no dependents.

So let's go through who qualifies and what is covered, as things stand in 2026.

What a presumptive does for you

Service connection means VA agrees your condition is linked to your military service. Most of these claims need three things:

• A current diagnosis.
• An event in service.
• A medical nexus. This is a link between the two.

The nexus is the part veterans most often cannot get. No doctor was standing next to the burn pit taking notes.

A presumptive takes away that need. Say you served in the right place at the right time, and you have a covered condition. Then VA presumes the link. That means VA assumes it. You still have to show the diagnosis and the qualifying service. But you no longer have to prove what caused it.

That is the whole value of the PACT Act, and it is huge.

Where you had to serve

Two exposure groups matter for burn pit and toxic exposure presumptives.

Post-9/11, on or after September 11, 2001: Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. This includes the airspace above those countries.

Gulf War, on or after August 2, 1990: Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the United Arab Emirates. This includes the airspace above those countries.

Read the airspace part twice. Aircrew who flew missions over these countries are covered, even if they never set foot on the ground. So are veterans who spent a few weeks somewhere they barely remember. These lists have no minimum tour length.

What is covered: burn pit presumptives

For those exposure groups, VA treats 11 cancers and 12 respiratory illnesses as presumptive. Respiratory means having to do with breathing.

The respiratory list surprises people. It includes conditions veterans never think of as linked to service. Here are some of them:

• Asthma diagnosed after service
• Chronic bronchitis
• COPD
• Chronic rhinitis
• Chronic sinusitis
• Emphysema
• Interstitial lung disease
• Pulmonary fibrosis
• Sarcoidosis

The list has others, too. Think of a veteran who has had chronic sinusitis for fifteen years and blamed it on Nevada allergies. That veteran may have a presumptive claim.

Get the current list from VA before you decide you are not on it. Veterans talk themselves out of filing because of a talk they only half remember.

What VA added in January 2025

Two additions took effect that year. They still catch veterans by surprise.

• Took effect January 2, 2025: urinary bladder cancer, ureter cancer, and related genitourinary cancers. Genitourinary means the urinary and genital organs.
• Took effect January 10, 2025: acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myelomas, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myelofibrosis.

Both additions apply to the Gulf War and post-9/11 groups above. Do you have one of these diagnoses? Did you serve in a covered place? Then VA may already presume the link for you.

Agent Orange: what changed and where

The PACT Act was not only about burn pits. It also reached back to the Vietnam era in two ways.

New conditions. Two conditions were added to the Agent Orange presumptive list:

• Hypertension, which is high blood pressure.
• Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, usually called MGUS.

Hypertension needs its own mention. High blood pressure is so common that Vietnam veterans do not think of it as a service-connected disability at all. An herbicide is a chemical that kills plants, like Agent Orange. If you had herbicide exposure and you have a hypertension diagnosis, that is a claim.

New places. Herbicide exposure coverage now includes:

• Thailand military bases between 1962 and 1976
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Guam and American Samoa between 1962 and 1980
• Johnston Atoll between 1972 and 1977

The Thailand and Guam changes matter more than they sound. For decades, veterans who served at those bases were told their exposure did not count. VA denied their claims for that reason. Those veterans should look again.

If VA denied you before the PACT Act, file again

This is the part I most want veterans to hear.

A denial from before the law changed was decided under the old rules. It says nothing about how VA would decide the same facts today. Think of a Vietnam veteran denied for hypertension in 2015. Or think of a Thailand veteran denied because VA said there was no exposure. Both were denied under rules that no longer exist.

The tool to use is a Supplemental Claim, VA Form 20-0995. With a Supplemental Claim, you send new evidence and ask VA to decide again. The evidence must be "new and relevant." New means VA did not have it before. Relevant means it helps prove something that matters in your claim.

VA's duty to assist also applies. That means VA has to help you get evidence.

Supplemental Claims have been moving fairly fast. They have taken around 59 days on average, against a goal of 125 days. Your case will vary.

Do not assume the old denial is the end of it. It usually is not.

What to do this week

Do these four things.

Step 1: File an Intent to File

An Intent to File tells VA you plan to file a claim. Use VA Form 21-0966. It locks in your effective date. It also gives you a year to finish the claim. Filing online starts it on its own. Do this before you gather a single record.

Step 2: Get the toxic exposure screening

VA offers this screening to veterans enrolled in VA health care. It is quick. It puts your exposure history into your medical record. That is where the VA staff who rate your claim can find it.

Step 3: Get diagnosed

A presumptive does nothing without a current diagnosis in a medical record. If you have symptoms but have not been checked, start there.

Step 4: Show where you were

Gather anything that places you in a covered place during a covered time. For example:

• Deployment orders
• Travel vouchers
• Flight logs
• Awards
• Evaluations

A note for families

A veteran may have died from a condition that is now presumptive. If so, the surviving spouse or children should look at DIC. DIC stands for dependency and indemnity compensation. It is a monthly payment to certain survivors.

Survivors often qualify under rules that changed after the veteran's claim was decided. And nobody sends them a letter about it.

The bottom line

The PACT Act was written because the government spent decades telling veterans that what they breathed was not the government's problem. The law says otherwise now. The only thing left is filing.

The Jacks Law Group represents veterans nationwide and worldwide from offices in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada. David R. Jacks, Jr. is a VA-accredited attorney. He is also a 100% permanently and totally disabled U.S. Army veteran. If you want help with a claim or an appeal, call to schedule a consultation.

Disclaimer: This blog is for general information only. It is not legal advice. Reading it does not, by itself, make us your lawyers. Every VA claim depends on its own facts. Rates, rating rules, and program rules change over time. For advice about your own situation, talk with a VA-accredited attorney.