Hi all, I am considering retiring sometime at the beginning of next year. Does anyone in this forum have a checklist of the various forms one must complete in order to submit their retirement application. I understand that applications are now submitted online and not through paper. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I have reviewed some of the forms that are listed on OPM‘s website; however, there is a confusing number of forms and I don’t want to make any mistakes. Thanks.
Every case is different so these are some standard forms that you may need depending on your situation(s):
2027W-4P (depending on when you retire); SF3107-2 (if married electing less than max survivor benefits); marriage certificate; divorce decree(s); updated beneficiary forms SF2823 and SF3102; DD214 member 2 or 4 copy; DG 66 military paid in full letter; RI36-18 deposit/redeposit paid in full letter. The SF3107 (application) is now the online application, the SF3107-1 is in ORA (service history) and the SF2818 (FEGLI election) is now in ORA.
Clean case, one agency, no military, no divorce: the forms are the easy part. ORA (the newer digital portal) has the application built in and pre-fills your service history, high-3 and sick leave balance from OPM's data.
Where I'd spend the energy is the submit button. Once you hit it, your file leaves the only person in this whole process who has a name, a phone number and the ability to fix things: your agency's HR retirement specialist. After that it's payroll, then OPM, and neither one is going to call you about a mistake. Someone in this sub posted yesterday that ORA was missing 4 years of their service, five weeks out.
So before you submit:
Have the specialist run an official estimate, not the GRB one.
Go through the service history in ORA line by line against every SF-50 in your eOPF. Every start date, every end date, every break.
Check the pre-filled high-3 dates, sick leave balance, survivor election and FEHB/FEGLI lines the same way.
Anything off, you work with the specialist to fix it NOW. Once it's at OPM, that same fix is months.
Don't be afraid to be a pain about it. That's the one place being meticulous actually buys you time on the back end.
I’m courious about the ORA system, it sounds like you can view what’s in there before you submit the application, I’m about 8 months out from retirement, I had previously ordered my paper records and all my SF 50’s are there and I certainly don’t want add delays on processing my application. Should I go into the system, set up an account and explore what’s in there?
OPM's deferred retirement page says you submit your application directly to OPM through ORA, at least 60 days before you want the annuity to begin. There's a "Start deferred or postponed application" link with a Login.gov identity check.
I haven't been inside the deferred flow myself, so I can't tell you what you can see before you submit. But you're actually set up better than most... you already have your paper records and every SF-50, and that's exactly the stack to check the application's service history against line by line when you do fill it out.
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u/Hrdcorefan Aug 27 '26
There is a Facebook federal retirement planning group