How to Fill Out and Submit NAVCOMPT Form 3065: Leave Request Steps

NAVCOMPT Form 3065 is the Navy and Marine Corps paper leave request. You complete boxes 1 through 22 with your identifying information, the type and dates of leave, your contact information while gone, and your signature, then route the form up your chain of command for approval and a Leave Control Number. The remaining boxes are filled in by your reviewing officer, the officer of the deck at check-out and check-in, and the certifying officer who reconciles the actual days used.

Most leave now goes through the NSIPS Electronic Service Record e-Leave system, which mirrors the same fields and routes approvals digitally.¹ The paper 3065 is the backup: deployments, remote locations without reliable network access, and system outages. The information you need and the approval chain are the same either way.

Before You Start: Know Your Leave Type and Balance

Two things on the form depend on facts you should confirm before writing anything: the leave type in Box 10 and the balance in Box 17.

You accrue leave at two and a half days per month of active service, or 30 days a year, and your current balance appears on your Leave and Earnings Statement.² Pull the balance from the LES rather than guessing.

Box 10 asks you to pick a type. The choice matters because some categories are chargeable to your balance and some are not. MILPERSMAN 1050-010 defines each one.³ The categories you are most likely to use:

Regular (annual) leave for vacation or personal reasons, chargeable to your balance.
Emergency leave for a personal or family emergency, still chargeable despite the circumstances.
Convalescent leave for medical recuperation, including maternity convalescent leave. Not chargeable; granted by your commanding officer or hospital commander.
Environmental Morale Leave for members at overseas locations with extraordinarily difficult living conditions, chargeable.
Separation or retirement leave taken before your separation date.

An “Other” option covers less common categories like reenlistment leave or leave in conjunction with a PCS. Parental leave following birth, adoption, or long-term foster placement is a separate 12-week non-chargeable entitlement during the year after the qualifying event.²

If you have little or no accrued leave and face an urgent situation, you can request advance leave, borrowing against days you have not yet earned. You must first exhaust your accrued balance, and the cap is generally the lesser of 30 days or the leave you will earn during your remaining active service. One warning: if you separate while still in an advance leave status, those days convert to excess leave, a no-pay status that can trigger a collection against you.⁴

Filling Out Boxes 1 Through 22

The paper form has 33 numbered boxes; you complete the first 22.⁵

Identification and Unit (Boxes 1–9)

Box 1, Date of Request: the date you are submitting the form, not the day your leave starts.
Box 3, SSN.
Box 4, Name: last, first, middle initial.
Box 5, Paygrade (E-4, O-3, and so on).
Box 6, Ship or Station: your assigned command.
Box 7, Department or Division within that command.
Box 8, Duty Section.
Box 9, Duty Phone where your duty section can be reached.

Leave Details (Boxes 10–18)

Box 10, Type of Leave: Regular, Sick, Emergency, Separation, Retirement, or Other.
Box 11a, Leaving Area of Permanent Duty Station: yes or no.
Box 11b, Taking Leave in CONUS: yes if you are staying inside the continental United States.
Box 12, Mode of Travel: air, bus, car, or train.
Box 13, Days Requested: the total, which must match the span between your departure and return.
Box 14, From: hour and date, YYMMDD.
Box 15, To: hour and date, YYMMDD.
Box 16, Normal Working Hours: your scheduled hours on the day of departure and the day of return, so the approving officer can see what coverage is affected.
Box 17, Leave Balance: pull it from your LES.
Box 18, Leave Used This FY.

Contact and Signature (Boxes 19–22)

Box 19, Leave Phone: a number where your command can reach you.
Box 20, Leave Address: the physical address where you will be staying.
Box 21, Ration Status: enlisted members only, indicating meal entitlement while on leave.
Box 22, Signature and date.

Boxes 19 and 20 are not optional. Your command needs to reach you in a national emergency or for immediate operational needs, and giving a bad number or an unreachable address and then failing to return on time can lead to consequences under Article 86 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which covers unauthorized absence.⁶

What Happens After You Sign

The request moves up your chain. The reviewing officer assesses how your absence affects the mission, watch bill, and staffing. If the timing works, the request goes to the approving authority, typically your commanding officer or a designee, who signs Box 23 on paper or approves in NSIPS.

A successful approval generates a Leave Control Number, printed on the paper form or assigned in e-Leave. The form itself states that approval is not valid without a control number.⁵ Keep it. You will need it for check-out and check-in.

Checking Out and Checking Back In

On the day your leave starts, you formally check out. In NSIPS with approved dates, the system handles check-out automatically, and a self-service function lets you check out manually if needed.¹ On paper, the officer of the deck records the hour and date you departed in Boxes 27a–27c.

Check back in immediately on return. In NSIPS, the self-service function lets you check in on or before your approved return date. On paper, the OOD signs Boxes 28a–28c with your actual return time and date. Actual dates often differ slightly from the original request because of travel delays or early returns. The certifying officer reconciles the final numbers in Boxes 30–33, and only the days actually used are deducted from your balance.

Changing or Canceling an Approved Request

Plans change. In NSIPS, either you or your Command Leave Administrator can cancel an approved e-Leave request, but a written justification is required and the system will not proceed without one. If you need to change dates instead of canceling, the CLA can resubmit a modified request, which wipes out the previous approval and sends it back through the chain for fresh routing.⁷ Do not assume a modification is approved just because the original was.

Submitting on Time

Submit early. Most commands expect requests at least ten days before your planned departure, though policies vary and some require up to 30 days for longer periods or travel outside the country. When paper routing is the right choice, whether because of deployment, a remote location without reliable network access, or a system outage, commands follow a standard operating procedure that covers the same fields as the electronic form.⁸

1
MyNavy HR. MILPERSMAN 1050-100 – Leave Check-In/Check-Out Procedures
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 701 – Entitlement and Accumulation
3
MyNavyHR. MILPERSMAN 1050-010 – Leave Policy
4
Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 1327.06 – Military Leave, Liberty, and Administrative Absence
5
Department of the Navy. NAVCOMPT Form 3065 – Leave Request/Authorization
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 886 – Art. 86. Absence Without Leave
7
My Navy HR. NSIPS CLA Training
8
MyNavy HR. Leave Processing in Lieu of Electronic Leave (E-Leave) SOP