Eligibility
Four questions decide whether you can file.
Most people who are turned away are turned away by the calendar, not by the medicine. Check the deadline first.
The deadline
Injury: 3 years from the first symptom.
Death: 2 years from the death, and within 4 years of the first symptom.
No extensions. No discovery rule. If H.R. 9672 passes, injury claims get 5 years — but it has not passed, and you should not plan around it.
The six-month rule, in plain terms
The program is for serious injuries. A sore arm that resolves in a week is not a claim. The threshold is any one of: effects lasting more than six months after the vaccine; a hospital stay that included surgery; or death. A shoulder injury that needs months of physical therapy, or Guillain-Barré that puts you in the hospital for two weeks and leaves you weak for a year, both clear it easily.
Close to a deadline?
Tell us the date of the shot and the date of your first symptom. If the clock is running out, an attorney can file a bare petition to stop it and add the records later.