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Home » About SBA » Oversight and Advocacy » Office of Hearings and Appeals » Size appeals

Size appeals

Appeal a formal size determination made by an SBA Government Contracting Area Office, or by an SBA Disaster Area Office.

Time limits for filing an appeal

You must file your size appeal with the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) within 15 calendar days of receiving the size determination. 13 C.F.R. 134.304(a). OHA must receive your appeal by 5 p.m. ET on the 15th day.

Where to file

We accept appeals by email at ohafilings@sba.gov. Appeals sent to other email addresses are not formal filings.

Submissions via HASU must be in PDF format and cannot be larger than 100MB. Please call OHA at 202-401-8200 to confirm that we received your filing.

File an appeal

Additional steps

In addition to filing your appeal at OHA, you must send a copy of the appeal petition and all attachments to:

  • The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) official who issued the determination
  • The contracting officer for the procurement at issue
  • The business whose size is at issue
  • All persons who filed protests; and
  • SBA’s Office of General Counsel, Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law, 13 C.F.R. 134.305(b)4

What to include with your appeal

  • A certificate of service, 13 C.F.R. 134.204(d). The certificate of service shows that you sent a copy of your appeal to the people in the paragraph above. View a sample certificate of service for a size appeal.
  • A copy of the size determination being appealed.

Appeal contents

Your appeal should contain:

  • The solicitation number
  • The contracting officer’s name and contact information
  • Your name and contact information; and
  • The factual basis of your case, legal argument as to why the size determination is in error, and requested relief (how you want OHA to decide the case), 13 C.F.R. 134.203 and 305(a)

Rules and regulations

The regulations governing size appeals are available at 13 C.F.R. 121. OHA’s regulations are available at 13 C.F.R. 134.101-317. You may search OHA’s decisions interpreting these regulations in our database and cite these decisions in your appeal. View a list of some of our most frequently cited decisions of size appeals.

Response time

The OHA judge assigned to your appeal will issue a notice and order setting a date for the close of record. All arguments and supporting documents must be received at OHA by this date. If you do not receive a notice and order within a few days, call OHA at 202-401-8200. If practicable, the judge will decide the case and issue a written decision within 60 days of the close of record.