How to Fill Out and Submit AF Form 964: Signing, Withdrawal, and Refusal

DAF Form 964 is the declination statement an Air Force or Space Force member signs to formally refuse the additional obligated service needed for a PCS, a training school selection, or a promotion carrying an Active Duty Service Commitment. The current fillable PDF lives on the Department of the Air Force e-Publishing site, and the process is governed by DAFI 36-2110, Total Force Assignments.¹ You do not fill it out at home. The Military Personnel Flight drives the process, counsels you on the consequences, and files the completed form directly to your electronic record. Because a signature here can set an involuntary separation date or close off future reenlistment, read what follows before you sign.

When the Form Applies

The usual trigger is a PCS assignment that requires more obligated service than your current date of separation allows. Once the MPF notifies you of the gap, you have 7 calendar days to either obtain the retainability (by extending or reenlisting) or sign DAF Form 964 to decline it. If you do neither within 30 days of notification, the MPF executes the form on your behalf to record that you failed to obtain retainability.¹

The same form covers declinations tied to a training school selection or a promotion-related ADSC. If you acknowledge the ADSC on AF Form 63 but will not obtain the retainability to support it, that choice is recorded on DAF Form 964.¹ Enlisted promotion declinations have a separate governing instruction in AFI 36-2502.²

One boundary worth flagging. The form is not required if you are only refusing to obtain more than the normal PCS minimum retainability. It applies when you decline the retainability altogether, or when you decline an ADSC.¹

Who Signs, and What Counseling Comes First

The form covers both enlisted members and officers across the Regular Air Force, Space Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard.¹ The counseling attached to it depends on where you are in your career.

If you are a career enlisted Airman or Guardian, the MPF must read you the relevant portions of DAFI 36-2606 and DAFI 36-2502 covering reenlistment and promotion ineligibility before you sign.¹ That briefing is the point of Section III on the form.

First-term members follow a lighter version. Section II, paragraph b of the form does not apply to first-term Airmen and Guardians, and the Section III career motivation counseling is not required.¹

Officers with an indefinite date of separation who want to decline a PCS or its ADSC establish a separation or retirement date through the 7-day option provisions in DAFI 36-2110, paragraph 6.29.¹

How to Complete the Form

Get the current fillable PDF from the Department of the Air Force e-Publishing site by searching “DAF 964” in the forms catalog.³ Adobe Reader is required to open and fill it electronically.

The form has three sections. Section I captures your name, grade, organization, and the specific event you are declining, whether a PCS, a school selection, or a promotion-related ADSC. Accuracy in this section matters because the completed form is filed to your electronic Unit Personnel Records Group and stays there.

Section II is your acknowledgment and signature. The signature block includes a dropdown option labeled “Airman Refused to Sign” that the MPF representative uses when a member will not execute the form voluntarily.¹

Section III is the career motivation counseling block, signed by the MPF representative to document that you were briefed on the reenlistment and promotion ineligibility consequences. First-term members are exempt from this section.¹

Verify every entry against your assignment notification or promotion list before you sign. The MPF representative will typically double-check, but the responsibility is yours, and reversing a filed form is not straightforward.

How the Form Gets Submitted

You do not submit DAF Form 964 yourself. After the MPF notifies you of the retainability requirement, you report to the MPF (or the career development element within it) for counseling. The representative walks you through the consequences, you sign Section II, the representative signs Section III, and the completed form goes to the Automated Records Management System for filing in your electronic UPRG.¹

Once the form is filed, the MPF updates your Personnel Data System record with Assignment Availability Code 09, flagging you as having declined retainability, and reclamas the assignment using reclama reason code “09.” For enlisted members with 19 or more years of total active federal military service, the reclama routes to the assignment office of primary responsibility with a copy to AFPC/DPPAM or USSF/ETMO.¹

What Happens After You Sign

Signing the form does not automatically cancel the assignment and leave the rest of your record untouched. A member who declines retainability can still be ordered to participate in the assignment if the retainability requirement is waived by AFPC or the gaining unit, or if the member already has enough time remaining to cover a shorter obligation.¹ Declining does not guarantee you stay put.

The consequences are heaviest for career enlisted members with 19 or more years of total active federal military service. After the declination is processed, AFPC or the relevant branch determines and updates your involuntary date of separation.¹ If you are surplus because of base closure, unit deactivation, or career field overage, that date is set as the last day of the month you can be effectively used at your current station.

Before you get to a signature, you may be offered a 7-day option period that lets you request retirement or separation, if eligible, as an alternative to the declination. If the gaining location changes before you depart, or changed assignment data requires more retainability, you get a second 7-day option period to accept or decline the updated terms.¹ Use those windows carefully. Once they close, options narrow.

Can You Withdraw the Declination Later

Depends on where you sit.

Career enlisted with 19 or more years TAFMS: the declination cannot be withdrawn. The decision is final.¹
Career enlisted with fewer than 19 years TAFMS: you may request withdrawal as an exception to policy. The request needs your unit commander’s recommendation and goes to AFPC/DPPAM or USSF/ETMO. If approved, you become subject to immediate reassignment based on Air Force needs and manning.¹
First-term Airmen and Guardians: the declination itself cannot be withdrawn, but if you later reenlist, the record of the prior declination is deleted from your file.¹

One more wrinkle. If the PCS requirement that triggered your declination is later canceled, that cancellation does not entitle you to withdraw the declination or reverse any action taken under the 7-day option provisions, as long as the requirement was valid when you were notified.¹

If the retainability requirement is later waived rather than the assignment canceled, the AAC 09 code and the DAF Form 964 are removed, and you proceed on the assignment as originally directed.¹

What If You Refuse to Sign

Refusing to sign does not stop the declination from being recorded. When a career enlisted member refuses, the MPF representative selects the “Airman Refused to Sign” option in the Section II signature block, signs Section III themselves, and submits the form to the Automated Records Management System for filing in the electronic UPRG.¹ The same procedure applies to first-term members who refuse. The form lands in your record either way. Only the signature block changes.

Retainability Thresholds That Bring the Form Into Play

Knowing the minimums helps you see the notification coming. DAFI 36-2110, Table 6.4, sets the PCS retainability requirements as follows:¹

CONUS to CONUS: 24 months.
CONUS to overseas: the unaccompanied tour length, plus meeting separation and retirement date minimums.
Overseas to CONUS: 12 months.
Retraining for first-term members, or an AFSC/SFSC change for officers: 24 months.
Humanitarian PCS or expedited transfer: 24 months.
Stabilized tour: the length of the stabilized tour for officers; normal PCS retainability for enlisted unless the assignment office specifies a longer period.

When your current DOS falls short of the applicable minimum, the MPF notifies you. That starts the 7-day clock to obtain retainability or sign DAF Form 964. Members approved for a consecutive overseas tour have 30 calendar days from notification to take action, which includes declining in writing on DAF Form 964.¹

1
Department of the Air Force. DAFI 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
2
Department of the Air Force. AFI 36-2502 – Enlisted Airman Promotion and Demotion Programs
3
Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force E-Publishing