How long CRSC takes to get approved depends almost entirely on which branch of service reviews your claim. Air Force applications can move in about 30 days, while the Department of the Navy currently tells applicants to expect 18 to 24 months. After your branch approves you, add roughly another 60 days for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) to issue your first Combat-Related Special Compensation payment.
Approval Timelines by Branch
Each branch runs its own CRSC board, and the speeds are not close to each other.
Navy and Marine Corps. The Department of the Navy CRSC Board tells applicants to plan for approximately 18 to 24 months from the date the board receives the application. High application volume and reduced staffing drive the wait.1Secretary of the Navy Council of Review Boards. Combat-Related Special Compensation Board If you retired from either service, submit as early as you can and keep a full copy of what you send.
Air Force. An Air Force CRSC FAQ states a typical processing time of about 30 days after the application is received. Real-world timelines often run longer depending on workload and how complex your medical picture is.
Army and Coast Guard. Neither branch publishes a fixed processing estimate, so times shift with caseload. Plan for several weeks at a minimum, and longer if your file involves older records or disabilities without clear combat documentation.
Across every branch, a straightforward claim with clean paperwork moves faster than a complicated one. Claims involving PTSD, traumatic brain injury, or events with sparse contemporaneous records are the ones that tend to stretch past the published estimates.
Add Time for the DFAS Payment Step
Approval by your branch is not the same as money in your account. Once your branch decides your claim, it sends an approval letter to DFAS, which handles the actual payments. Your first monthly CRSC payment should arrive about 60 days after DFAS receives that letter.2Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Retired and Annuitant Pay Processing – How Long Does It Take Payments come by direct deposit.
Retroactive pay covering the period between your effective date of eligibility and the start of monthly payments takes additional time. DFAS has to research your pay history and run manual calculations, so the retroactive deposit typically lags behind your first regular monthly check.
What Slows Applications Down
The single biggest cause of delay is an incomplete package. If your branch has to write back for missing documents, that round trip alone can add months, because branches work applications in the order received and each request pushes your file to the back of the queue.
The combat-related determination itself also takes time. Your branch is not simply checking that you have a VA rating. The review board has to independently confirm a causal link between each claimed disability and a qualifying combat-related event. Disabilities backed by a Purple Heart citation or an after-action report describing the injury tend to clear review faster than claims that rely on medical records without a direct reference to the triggering event.
Three things are within your control:
- Submit every relevant document the first time. Send your VA decision notice, DD214, retirement orders, and the service medical records that connect specific disabilities to combat events. Do not send your entire medical file.
- Respond to any request from the CRSC office immediately. Slow responses compound the delay.
- Provide objective evidence for conditions like PTSD or traumatic brain injury. Review boards look for contemporaneous service records confirming the event, not later medical opinions based on your account. Buddy statements, incident reports, and unit records help.
Documents to Send With DD Form 2860
You apply by submitting DD Form 2860 to your branch of service, not to the VA or DFAS.3Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Apply for CRSC The VA’s guidance lists the supporting documents your branch expects to see:4U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Combat-Related Special Compensation
- Service medical records from the time of the injury, showing severity and the combat-related connection
- Official service records such as after-action reports, investigative reports, and performance evaluations
- Decorations and award recommendations, including Purple Heart citations, Combat Action Badges, and valor medals
- Retirement orders and your DD214
- Your VA decision notice showing current disability ratings
Send copies only. Your branch will not return originals. Keep the complete package, including the application itself, so you can reference it later if you need to request reconsideration.
A Note on Eligibility Before You Wait
If you are not actually eligible, no amount of processing time will produce an approval. Federal law requires that you be entitled to military retired pay, that you have a VA disability rating of at least 10%, and that your retired pay is currently reduced by the VA disability offset.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1413a – Combat-Related Special Compensation Medical retirees under Chapter 61 with fewer than 20 years of service can still qualify if their disability rating at retirement was at least 30%.4U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Combat-Related Special Compensation Retirees whose retired pay is based solely on a temporary disability retirement under 10 USC 12731b are not eligible.
Only disabilities the Department of Defense classifies as combat-related qualify. Simply having served in a war zone is not enough on its own; the disability has to trace to armed conflict, hazardous service, conditions simulating war, or an instrumentality of war.6Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Combat-Related Special Compensation Program Guidance Picking the wrong category on your application, or failing to tie the medical evidence to any category, is a common reason for denial and a common reason applicants end up waiting through a second round of review.
If You Are Denied, Add More Time
A denial letter tells you which disabilities were not found to be combat-related and why. You have two paths, and each has its own timeline on top of what you already waited.
The first is reconsideration by your branch’s CRSC office with new evidence. The Army uses a specific reconsideration form (CRSC Form 12e) and requires new supporting documentation along with a personal letter explaining your situation.7U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Reconsiderations Reviews and Updates Other branches follow similar procedures. Reconsideration goes back into the same queue that produced your original wait, so plan for another cycle of review.
If reconsideration fails, you can appeal to the Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR) for your branch using DD Form 149. The Army specifically requires that you request reconsideration from the CRSC office before escalating to the Army Review Boards Agency.7U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Reconsiderations Reviews and Updates BCMR appeals apply a different standard: the board looks for errors or injustices in your military record rather than simply re-evaluating combat-relatedness. That path works best when your records themselves contain a correctable mistake.
Realistic Expectations From Application to Payment
For a well-documented Air Force claim, you might see approval in about a month and a first payment roughly 60 days later. For a Navy or Marine Corps claim, plan on a year and a half to two years for approval, plus that same 60-day DFAS window, plus additional time for retroactive pay to be calculated. Army and Coast Guard applicants land somewhere in between depending on caseload. The two levers you actually control are the completeness of your original package and how fast you respond when the CRSC office asks for more.