Leaving Federal Service Checklist: Everything to Do Before You Resign
Resigning from federal service before you're eligible for an immediate retirement means navigating a series of deadlines, forms, and irreversible decisions in a compressed window. Miss one — especially the ones HR doesn't volunteer — and you can lose benefits permanently. This is the chronological sequence, broken into what to do before, during, and after your last day.
60+ Days Before Your Last Day
Download your entire eOPF. Your electronic Official Personnel Folder contains official personnel records such as SF-50s and benefits enrollment documents. Once you lose agency intranet access, you lose access to eOPF. Download everything available — not just recent actions. You'll need service records years later when you claim a deferred annuity.
Verify your Service Computation Date (SCD). Block 31 of your SF-50 lists a Service Computation Date for leave; it is not a complete accounting of retirement credit. Ask HR to verify your retirement service history, especially if you had breaks in service, military deposits, non-deduction periods, or transfers between agencies. Catching an error now, while you still have HR access, is far easier than correcting it through OPM years later.
Complete any military service deposit. If you served on active duty and want that time counted in your creditable service for pension calculations, the deposit must be paid to your employing agency before your final separation. Once you separate, you cannot initiate or complete a military service deposit through OPM. The deposit amount is 3% of your military base pay for FERS-covered service (7% for CSRS). If the deposit isn't paid, that military time is permanently excluded from your deferred or postponed annuity computation.
Run the numbers on deferred vs. refund. With your retirement service record verified and your high-3 salary known, calculate what your deferred annuity would be at age 62 (or age 60 with 20+ years, or MRA with 30+ years). Compare that lifetime pension against the lump-sum SF 3106 refund invested privately. If you have 10–29 years of service and have reached your MRA, you also have the postponed retirement option — which preserves FEHB re-enrollment rights that the deferred path permanently forfeits.
30 Days Before Your Last Day
Confirm your FEHB/PSHB enrollment status. Check whether you've met the 5-year coverage rule before separation. It generally requires continuous coverage during the 5 years of service immediately before separation, or for all service since your first opportunity to enroll if that is less than 5 years; qualifying coverage as a family member can count, and TRICARE coverage can count if you are enrolled in FEHB at separation. Ask HR how any break in service or uncovered period affects your record.
Review your FEGLI elections. You have 31 days from separation to convert your Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance to an individual whole-life policy without a medical exam. Know your current coverage amounts — Basic, Option A, B, and C — so you can compare conversion costs against private term life quotes. Your agency HR provides the conversion forms (SF 2821 and SF 2819) and a list of approved insurers.
Check your TSP vesting. Your employee contributions and the agency match vest immediately, but for most employees the Agency Automatic 1% Contribution vests after 3 years of creditable civilian service; certain appointments vest after 2 years. If you're under the applicable period, that 1% is forfeited when you leave. Also confirm your TSP beneficiary designations are current — the TSP does not default to your spouse in all circumstances.
Request your annual leave balance projection. Your unused annual leave is paid out as a lump sum based on your final hourly rate, including scheduled pay increases that would have occurred during the leave period. Unused sick leave is not paid out — under a deferred retirement it's forfeited entirely, while under a postponed retirement it's credited toward service time at annuity start. Plan your last days accordingly.
Your Last Day and the First Week After
Get your exit paperwork from HR. Keep your final SF-50, TCC election form (SF 2809), FEGLI conversion notification, and any service records HR provides. If they don't provide the forms proactively, ask for them.
Elect Temporary Continuation of Coverage if needed. TCC extends your FEHB or PSHB health plan for up to 18 months. You pay the full premium — both your share and the government share — plus a 2% administrative charge. You generally have 60 days after receiving notice or 60 days after separation, whichever is later, to enroll. TCC begins when the no-cost 31-day extension ends; if enrollment is processed later, coverage is retroactive to that date.
Do not file SF 3106 impulsively. You must be separated for at least 31 consecutive days before OPM will process a contribution refund. Use that mandatory waiting period to finalize your decision. Once you accept the refund, all annuity and survivor benefit rights are permanently extinguished.
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31+ Days After Separation
Make the deferred/postponed vs. refund decision. You're now eligible to file SF 3106 for a refund. If you're keeping your contributions in the fund, you don't need to do anything — your deferred annuity right is preserved automatically. There's no form to file and no confirmation to request. You just leave the money where it is.
Set a calendar reminder for your annuity filing window. When you approach your eligible annuity age, apply directly to OPM through its Online Retirement Application (ORA), not your former agency. OPM says to submit the application at least 60 days before you want your deferred annuity to begin. If you're 35 now and eligible at 62, that's a reminder you need to set 27 years out.
Keep your records. Store your downloaded eOPF, SF-50s, leave records, and military discharge documentation (DD-214 if applicable) somewhere you won't lose them over the next several decades. Your former agency's HR office may not exist in the same form when you need records later, and OPM must verify your service history before processing a claim. Processing delays at the Boyers retirement center currently average 56–62 days for digital claims and 149 days for paper submissions.
The Leaving Federal Service Early guide walks through each of these steps with fillable worksheets, including the refund-vs-defer comparison calculator, the FEHB coverage bridge planner, and a pre-separation document checklist you can print and check off.
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Download the Leaving Federal Service — Deferred, Postponed or Refund? Checklist — a printable guide with checklists, scripts, and action plans you can start using today.