Filing a Scars Claim

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This is general education, not legal or claims advice, and not guidance for your specific claim. It cannot promise you a rating or an outcome, and no one can. For help with your own claim, see a free accredited representative (see Get free, accredited help below). Nothing here creates a representative relationship.

Current as of October 2026. Rules, forms, and figures change. Check current details at va.gov.

The best way to use this guide

The strongest position is to be your own informed advocate and to work with a free accredited representative. An accredited Veterans Service Organization, such as the DAV, VFW, American Legion, or a county or state veterans office, helps at no charge. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can help too. They can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim, and after that they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. This guide is here so you understand your own situation and can work with them as a full partner instead of handing it over blind. If you'd rather handle this yourself, and you're comfortable doing that, the guide walks you through every step. Either way, you stay in control.

What you'll get done

The outcome: By the end of this guide you'll file a scars claim on VA Form 21-526EZ that documents the location, size, and effects of each scar, including scars left by surgery for a service-connected condition.

This guide prepares you for the task. It doesn't and can't promise a rating, a percentage, or an outcome. The evidence in your file decides the result.

What you need before you start

• Internet access for VA.gov, or the VA phone line at 1-800-827-1000.
• Unretouched color photos of each scar and a note of where it is on the body.
• Measurements of each scar (length and width, or area).
• A note of whether any scar is painful, unstable (the skin over it keeps breaking down), or limits motion.
• The cause of each scar: an in-service injury, or surgery for a service-connected condition.
• Your VA file number, if you have one.

When to start: Today. Once VA has your Intent to File, you have one year to send the complete claim, and VA treats the claim as filed on the Intent to File date. If you file within a year of leaving service, the effective date can reach back to the day after discharge. Otherwise it's usually the date VA gets the claim (or the Intent to File date), or the date the condition arose if that's later.

Start here: the basics

VA rates scars under Diagnostic Codes 7800 to 7805 of the skin schedule. The code depends on where the scar is and what it does:

• 7800: scars and disfigurement of the head, face, or neck. VA counts eight listed characteristics, like length, width, a raised or sunken surface, and color or texture changes over a set area, and looks at tissue loss and distortion of features. VA also looks at color photos.
• 7801: scars elsewhere with damage to the soft tissue underneath, rated on area.
• 7802: scars elsewhere without that tissue damage. Only a very large area is ratable.
• 7804: scars that are painful or unstable, rated on how many you have. Size doesn't matter here, and a scar rated under another scar code can also be rated here.
• 7805: any other effect, such as a scar that limits how a joint moves, rated under the code for that effect.

So measure and describe every scar on its own. For 7801 and 7802, VA can rate each body zone separately. For 7804, the number of painful or unstable scars sets the level. This guide prints no percentages. See how VA rates conditions at va.gov.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 4.118, DC 7800 to 7805 and their Notes.

The steps

Step 1. File an Intent to File.

This is the same first step as every VA claim. It holds your start date for one year while you gather evidence. How to file an Intent to File, step by step.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 3.155(b).

Done when you have a confirmation saved.

Step 2. List every scar with photos and measurements.

How. List each scar, where it is, and its length and width or area. Take clear, unretouched color photos. A scar on the head, face, or neck falls under different rules than one on the body.

Do not describe your scars as one group. Measure and record each one separately so none gets missed.

Done when you have a measured, photographed list of every scar.

Step 3. Mark which scars are painful or unstable.

How. For each scar, note whether it hurts and whether the skin over it often breaks down or opens. Ask your provider to record it. Painful or unstable scars fall under DC 7804 no matter their size.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 4.118, DC 7804, Notes (1) to (3).

Done when you've marked which scars are painful or unstable and it's in your medical records.

Step 4. State the cause of each scar.

How. For each one, name the in-service injury or the surgery. A scar from an operation on a service-connected condition is connected through that condition.

If the scar came from an in-service injury, then point to the service records. If it came from surgery on a condition VA already service connected, then name that condition and claim the scar as secondary. If the cause isn't clear from your records, then ask a free accredited representative how to show it.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 3.303; 38 CFR § 3.310(a).

Done when you've tied each scar to service or to surgery on a service-connected condition.

Step 5. Note any motion or function a scar limits.

How. If a scar pulls tight and limits how a joint moves, or causes nerve or muscle problems, have your provider record it. VA rates that effect under the code for it, through DC 7805.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 4.118, DC 7805.

Done when you've documented any limit a scar causes.

Step 6. File the 21-526EZ listing each scar, and confirm it arrived.

How. Name each scar, its location, and whether it's painful, unstable, or limiting. Attach photos and measurements. File online at VA.gov, or mail it to Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444. About 10 days later, check VA.gov or call 1-800-827-1000 to confirm every document is in your file.

Done when the claim lists each scar with its location and effects, and you've confirmed VA has everything.

Step 7. Get ready for the exam VA schedules.

How. Let the examiner see and measure every scar, including ones you didn't think to list. Describe the pain or breakdown plainly: how often it happens and what it stops you from doing.

Where this is written down: 38 CFR § 4.46.

Done when you've gone to the exam ready to show every scar and describe its effects.

Recap checklist

• Filed an Intent to File and saved the confirmation.
• Listed every scar with photos and measurements.
• Marked which scars are painful or unstable.
• Stated the cause of each scar, including surgery on a service-connected condition.
• Documented any motion or function a scar limits.
• Filed the 21-526EZ listing each scar and confirmed VA has everything.
• Went to the exam ready to show every scar.

Reminder: rules and rates change. Check any current figure at va.gov. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Organization is free. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim. After that, they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. This guide prepared you for the task. The evidence in your file decides the result.

Go further

• The book: A VA Disability Claims Manual for the Rest of Us, the full guide this one comes from. Coming soon as a PDF on this site and in Kindle and paperback on Amazon.
• The workbook: The Master VA Claim Workbook, a fillable PDF. Coming soon.
• Free toolkit: the worksheets that go with A VA Disability Claims Manual for the Rest of Us. No signup.

Get free, accredited help

For anything about your own claim, talk to an accredited representative. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Organization is free. Accredited claims agents and attorneys can't charge for work done before VA issues its initial decision on your claim. After that, they may charge a fee within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. Free help is available through Veterans Service Organizations such as the DAV, VFW, and American Legion, and through county and state veterans offices.

To find one near you, visit va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative. Representation begins only when you sign VA Form 21-22 (for a Veterans Service Organization) or 21-22a (for an individual agent or attorney). With one rare exception for a single unpaid case, only accredited people can represent you before the VA, and only an accredited agent or attorney can charge you a fee. Nothing in this guide creates that relationship.

A warning about claim sharks. Anyone who offers to file your initial claim for a fee, or who guarantees you a rating or a percentage, is selling something you shouldn't buy. Accredited Veterans Service Organizations help at no charge, and accredited claims agents and attorneys may charge only after VA issues its initial decision, within the limits of 38 CFR 14.636. Report predatory companies to the VA Office of Inspector General at 1-800-488-8244.

About this guide

This guide is education, not representation. It explains how part of the VA system works so you can handle your own business with confidence. It is not legal or claims advice, and reading it does not create any representative relationship between you and the author. The author is not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nothing here is endorsed by the VA.

This guide prints no live VA dollar figures and no rating percentages on purpose, because they change. Before you make a decision based on any number, check the current figure at va.gov. No book can promise you a rating; the evidence in your file decides the result. Help from an accredited Veterans Service Officer is always free.

Details

• PDF, US Letter, 8 pages including the cover
• 13 fillable checkboxes
• Current as of October 2026

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Never a cut of your claim.

About the author: J. Erickson is a service-disabled Air Force veteran. He served as a military firefighter and as a veteran service officer, where he spent years walking veterans through the same claims process he writes about now. He holds an MBA and writes plain-language guides for veterans who want to understand the system without a translator.