Filing a VA Disability Claim from American Samoa

Nothing about the substance of a VA disability claim changes because you live in American Samoa. The rating schedule, the evidence rules, and the appeal routes are federal and identical. What changes is how long it takes and how hard it is to reach anyone about it, and both are measurable. Claims from American Samoa are processed by the Veterans Benefits Administration regional office in Honolulu, which works a national queue covering all fifty states and the territories. There is on-island VBA representation in each territory, through either permanent or travelling staff. The examination is where the delay lives. When VBA needs a compensation and pension examination, the exam in American Samoa is conducted by a contract examiner who travels to the territory specifically to see the veteran. Guam has contracted examiners located on island; veterans in the Northern Mariana Islands are sometimes flown to Guam. American Samoa waits for the examiner to come. The consequence, from VBA data GAO published in 2024: the average number of days to process a disability claim requiring a medical examination, for veterans living in American Samoa, was 415 days in fiscal year 2020, 318 in 2021, 267 in 2022, and 233 in 2023. The trend is good and the number is still nearly double VA's stated goal of 125 days or fewer, and longer than the average for veterans in the rest of the United States. In fiscal year 2023 VA's examination contractors met their 36-day goal for delivering exam results in the freely associated states but not for any U.S. territory. Travel to the examination is reimbursed, by VA or by the contractor depending on who conducts it, and that route does not depend on your rating. One small thing that is not small if it happens to you. VBA's call center number was not toll-free from parts of the Pacific. As of December 2023 VBA had established a new toll-free number and tested it in American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands; callers connected in all three, but callers in American Samoa were still being charged long distance rates, which VA said it continued to work on. Add the time zone: American Samoa is far behind continental U.S. business hours, and local VBA officials named time zone difference as its own barrier. Plan on email and mail as the primary channel and on the territorial veterans office or a service organization as the intermediary. Scale, for context on what the queue looks like here. VA's population model estimated 2,723 veterans in American Samoa in fiscal year 2022. In fiscal year 2023, 907 veterans living in American Samoa received disability compensation, 7 received pension, and 33 received education benefits. GAO separately flagged that it could not confirm the accuracy of VA's territorial population estimates, so treat the 2,723 as VA's working figure rather than a count. The American Samoa Government Office of Veterans and Military Affairs assists with compensation questions and benefits follow-up, and GAO's review also identified the American Samoa Veterans' Association and a Veterans of Foreign Wars post on island. Accredited representation costs nothing and is the sensible first call.