OHA — SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals
Also known as: OHA appeal, SBA appeals tribunal
At a Glance
- Where you file
- SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA)
- Who decides
- OHA Administrative Judges, independent of SBA's program offices
- Deadline to file
- Size-determination appeals within 15 days of receiving the determination; NAICS appeals within 10 days of solicitation issuance; other matters per 13 CFR Part 134
- Automatic stay?
- No; OHA reviews the underlying determination on the record
- Relief available
- Affirm, reverse, or remand the size, status, certification, or NAICS decision below — the final agency action
- Cost
- No filing fee
What It Is
The Office of Hearings and Appeals is SBA's independent administrative court, operating under 13 CFR Part 134. It is where the eligibility decisions made lower down in SBA — size determinations from the Area Offices, SDVOSB and VOSB status and certification decisions, and NAICS code designations — get independent review by an Administrative Judge who is separate from SBA's program and contracting offices. OHA does not run procurements or award contracts; it reviews whether SBA (or a contracting officer, in the NAICS context) applied the law and the facts correctly. Its jurisdiction spans size appeals, SDVOSB/VOSB status protest appeals under Part 134 Subpart J, VetCert eligibility appeals, NAICS code appeals, 8(a) and WOSB/HUBZone matters, and certain other programs. An OHA decision is generally the final agency action, which means the next step for a losing party is a federal court, not another SBA office.
When to Use It
- When an SBA Area Office size determination went against you and you want independent review within 15 days.
- When SBA denied or decided an SDVOSB/VOSB status protest or a VetCert certification and you want to appeal.
- When you are appealing a contracting officer's NAICS code designation on a solicitation.
- When you need the final agency decision on an eligibility question before deciding whether to seek review in federal court.
Key Features
| Feature | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Independent administrative judges | OHA judges are separate from SBA's program offices, giving eligibility appeals a genuinely independent review inside the agency. |
| Broad small-business jurisdiction | OHA hears size appeals, SDVOSB/VOSB status protest appeals, VetCert eligibility appeals, NAICS appeals, and 8(a)/WOSB/HUBZone matters — the eligibility disputes GAO and the courts usually defer to SBA on. |
| Deadlines vary by matter | A size-determination appeal is due within 15 days of receiving the determination; a NAICS appeal within 10 days of solicitation issuance; other matters follow their own Part 134 rules. |
| Record review, not a re-do | OHA generally reviews whether the decision below contained a clear error of fact or law on the existing record, rather than taking the whole case fresh. |
| Final agency action | An OHA decision is typically the last word inside SBA; further review means going to a federal court. |
What It Means for an SDVOSB
OHA is the appellate backstop for every SBA eligibility fight an SDVOSB can find itself in — a size determination that found the firm other-than-small, a status protest decision on ownership or control, or a VetCert denial or cancellation. Because GAO and the Court of Federal Claims generally defer to SBA on size and SDVOSB status, OHA is effectively the specialist forum for those issues, and its decision is the final agency action. The practical lesson for veteran-owned firms is that the record built at the Area Office or in the status protest is what OHA reviews — so the time to put in complete ownership, control, and size documentation is at the determination stage, because OHA usually will not take new evidence to fix a thin record on appeal.
How to File
- Identify the type of decision you are appealing — size determination, SDVOSB/VOSB status, VetCert eligibility, or NAICS code — because each has its own deadline and rules in 13 CFR Part 134.
- Calendar the deadline: 15 days from receiving a size determination, 10 days from solicitation issuance for a NAICS appeal, or the specific Subpart deadline for status/certification matters.
- File the appeal petition with OHA, stating the clear error of fact or law in the decision below and attaching the record support.
- Serve the required parties (SBA, the contracting officer, the affected concern) and follow OHA's procedural rules on responses and the record.
- If OHA rules against you and it is the final agency action, evaluate whether to seek review in federal court.
Common Pitfalls
- Treating OHA as a place to introduce new evidence — it generally reviews the existing record for clear error, so a thin record below is hard to fix on appeal.
- Missing the matter-specific deadline — 15 days for size appeals and 10 days for NAICS appeals are unforgiving and differ from the 5-business-day protest clocks.
- Assuming another SBA office can revisit an OHA decision — OHA is generally the final agency action, and the next step is federal court.
- Filing at OHA for a bid-evaluation dispute — evaluation grounds belong at the agency, GAO, or COFC, not OHA.
Run the Numbers
Frequently Asked
What does SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals do?
OHA is SBA's independent administrative tribunal under 13 CFR Part 134. It hears appeals of size determinations, SDVOSB and VOSB status protest decisions, VetCert eligibility decisions, NAICS code appeals, and certain 8(a), WOSB, and HUBZone matters. Its Administrative Judges are independent of SBA's program offices, and an OHA decision is generally the final agency action on the eligibility question — the next step for a losing party is a federal court.
What is the deadline to appeal a size determination to OHA?
An appeal of an SBA Area Office size determination must be filed with OHA within 15 calendar days after the appellant receives the determination. This is different from the 10-day clock for a NAICS code appeal (which runs from solicitation issuance) and from the 5-business-day deadline to file the underlying size or status protest. Missing the 15-day window forfeits the appeal.
Can I appeal an OHA decision?
An OHA decision is generally the final decision of the Small Business Administration on the matter, so you cannot appeal it to another SBA office. A party that still disagrees would have to seek review in a federal court, where courts typically give substantial deference to SBA's determinations on small-business size and SDVOSB status.
Primary Sources
- 13 CFR Part 134 — Rules of Procedure Governing Cases Before OHA
- SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals
- 13 CFR § 134.304 — NAICS code and size standard appeals
Plain-English reference, not legal advice. Protest and dispute deadlines are short and strictly enforced, the choice of forum can waive other rights, and the governing statutes, FAR, and 13 CFR rules are periodically amended — always confirm the current deadline and procedure for your specific situation, read the actual solicitation and contract, and consult qualified counsel before relying on this.
Change log (1)
- LaunchedPublished the federal bid protest & contract dispute forums reference covering where and how an SDVOSB challenges a procurement or resolves a dispute — the agency-level protest (FAR 33.103), the GAO bid protest and CICA automatic stay (31 U.S.C. §§ 3551–3557 / 4 CFR Part 21), the Court of Federal Claims protest (28 U.S.C. § 1491(b)), the SBA size protest (13 CFR §§ 121.1001–121.1009), the SDVOSB status protest (13 CFR Part 134, Subpart J), the NAICS code appeal (13 CFR § 121.1103), SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals (13 CFR Part 134), the Contract Disputes Act claim (41 U.S.C. §§ 7101–7109), the ASBCA/CBCA boards of contract appeals (41 U.S.C. § 7105), and the Court of Federal Claims contract claim (28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)) — each with an at-a-glance quick-facts card, a key-features table, a how-to-file checklist, common pitfalls, an SDVOSB-specific angle, FAQPage, Article, Dataset, and BreadcrumbList structured data, primary-source citations, and cross-links into the glossary, regulation explainers, compliance deadlines, how-to guides, FAQ, and the set-aside eligibility, size-standard, win-probability, and price-to-win calculators.