If a claimant is asked to submit evidence within 30 days, what happens if they provide it six months later?

When a claimant is asked to submit evidence within a specified timeframe, like 30 days, providing that evidence six months later means it was outside the requested period. Option B states that the claim is adjudicated on existing evidence, which reflects the process that the Department of Veterans Affairs follows.

Under VA regulations, if additional evidence is submitted after the deadline, it typically cannot be considered in the current adjudication. Instead, the claim will proceed based solely on the evidence that was already available at the time of the original request. This allows the adjudication process to maintain its efficiency and ensures that claims are resolved in a timely manner without the constant backlog of incoming evidence that can delay decisions.

The mechanisms in place typically don't allow for late evidence submissions to automatically reopen or alter the initial claim unless specific circumstances apply. Therefore, the correct understanding of the situation aligns with the idea that the existing evidence at the time of consideration is what dictates the outcome of the claim, which is why the answer pointing to adjudication on the existing evidence is accurate.