This week’s column will answer a variety of questions related to the ever-popular “black hole” of retirement processing. As this has been a recurring topic, you will see references to other articles that relate to the questions.
In addition, you might want to read Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor’s “Secrets of OPM” blog post from last Friday, Shutdown Reflections. In it he explains why federal agencies couldn’t pay the 800,000 furloughed and excepted employees during a shutdown, in case you were wondering!
Retirement processing delays
Q. I was terminated and forced into retirement, but I’m still waiting for my agency to complete my retirement application. That means I have not been paid for several months.
A. OPM cannot begin processing your application until your agency HR and payroll provider sends your full employment and pay history to OPM. On average, this can take about 30 days after your retirement date. Due to the shutdown/furlough, this can take much longer if your application was still at the HR or payroll processing point and couldn’t continue moving through the system during this time. If your application did make it to OPM but is missing required documents or signatures, your agency will need to correct those issues before OPM can start processing your case.
If you used the Online Retirement Application (ORA) to process your application, you could see where in the process your application sits prior to being received by OPM.
According to OPM retirement statistics, the average processing time for retirements to be finalized has increased to 79 days. Initial retirement cases that were finalized in less than 60 days, on average, took 45.8 days to complete, and retirement claims received at OPM that were finalized in more than 60 days, on average, took 97.8 days to complete. So, that’s about a month and a half to as much as more than three months to finalize a retirement claim after it is received at OPM. This does not account for how long it takes from the date an employee spends their last day on the job until the retirement application is submitted to OPM.
A few things to keep in mind:
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About 20% of applications OPM receives are missing required documents or signatures. These are called “unhealthy” applications.
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OPM will work with your agency’s HR team to resolve it as quickly as possible.
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You may receive a request for additional documents (such as a divorce decree, military service records or signatures).
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This can delay the start of interim pay, so ensuring your application is complete before submission is key.
Once OPM receives the application package, they will send you a case number associated with your retirement application. This is called your Civil Service Active (CSA) number and will be your identification number you will use when contacting OPM for future needs.
OPM is working on getting recent retirees at least a partial retirement payment. OPM uses interim pay to help get funds to retirees as quickly as possible.
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Within 30 days: About 75% of retirees are placed into interim pay within 30 days of OPM receiving their completed application.
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Within 60 days: The remaining 25% — usually those with more complex cases, such as court-ordered benefits or service credit issues — typically enter interim pay within 60 days.
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Interim pay: Interim pay is generally 80% of your estimated final annuity. Once your application is fully processed, OPM will adjust the payment up or down as needed and issue any backpay owed.
For more information, see these past columns:
OPM’s new blog touts modernization while retirees wait for answers during the shutdown, Nov. 6, 2025
What to expect while you’re expecting (your retirement benefit, that is), Oct. 9, 2025
The end of the ‘Fork in the Road’, Sept. 25, 2025
Applying for postponed and deferred retirement
Q. What does OPM say about how (or whether) to use the ORA process if one is applying for a postponed or deferred retirement? Is that still a paper process? If so, is this expected to change?
A. The application for a deferred or postponed retirement, RI 92-19, continues to be used by former employees who left before they were eligible for immediate retirement, or they chose to postpone applying for their “MRA + 10” retirement benefit to avoid a substantial age-based reduction. Employees leaving federal employment at their Minimum Retirement Age (MRA) or older with at least 10 years but less than 30 years of creditable service, or between age 60 and 62 with 10 years but less than 20 years of service, have their FERS retirement benefit reduced by five percent for every year they are under age 62 (prorated monthly) unless they postpone applying for this benefit. The instructions for completing and submitting this application are included in the form. Additional information can be found in the pamphlet, Applying for Deferred or Postponed Retirement under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
Here are a few past columns that discuss this type of retirement:
The unplanned retirement dilemma, Feb. 6, 2025
Federal retirement planning during uncertain times, March 27, 2025
Resigning instead of retiring, April 11, 2024
Online retirement application
Q. So, I retired from my agency and was notified that the GRB system was down, and my retirement was not processed. So today they reached out and told me I need to use a whole new system called the ORA. Why didn’t they use the old system to send my application to OPM? Why should I be required to do my application over again?
A. According to a May 12 memo from former Acting OPM Director Chuck Ezell, paper retirement applications stopped being accepted earlier this year. Starting on June 2, 2025, all agencies served by the National Finance Center (NFC) and Interior Business Center (IBC) were required to submit retirement applications via ORA. OPM Director Scott Kupor writes about it in more detail in his Oct. 3 blog post, We’re Going Back… to the Mine (not to Abu Dhabi).
He explains that ORA automates the front end of the retirement process. It converts a paper-based/snail mail-based application process into a seamless online experience. Applicants, HR departments and payroll providers now have an online system to perfect a retirement application and deliver it — electronically — to OPM. ORA integrates with a digital file system (DFS) that enables the OPM team to review all of the required documents online (vs. on paper) and with an online annuity calculator (JANUS) that helps compute the annuitants’ monthly check amount.
For more information, see these past columns:
OPM’s digital retirement application is live. What that means for feds planning to retire, July 17, 2025
OPM touts ‘fully paperless’ retirement application, though concerns remain, May 12, 2025