How to Fill Out and Submit SF 3112: Forms A-E, Filing, and Denials

To fill out SF 3112 for OPM disability retirement, you complete the five sub-forms in the package (SF 3112A through SF 3112E), each assigned to a different person: you write your own statement of disability on SF 3112A, your supervisor completes SF 3112B, your treating physician completes SF 3112C, your agency’s HR office completes SF 3112D, and SF 3112E is the completeness checklist. The full application also requires SF 3107 (Application for Immediate Retirement) submitted alongside it.¹

Before you start writing, confirm you meet the basic eligibility floor. FERS employees need at least 18 months of creditable civilian service; CSRS employees need five years.²³ The condition must be expected to last at least one year from the filing date.⁴

File Before the Deadline Runs

The application must reach OPM before you separate from federal service or within one year after your separation date. Miss it and OPM will not consider the claim. The only exception applies to individuals who were mentally incompetent at separation, in which case the one-year clock starts when competency is restored or a fiduciary is appointed.⁵

If you’ve already separated and worry the full package won’t be ready in time, send OPM the completed SF 3107 and SF 3112A along with contact information for the people finishing the remaining forms. That preserves your filing date while you assemble the rest.⁶

Gather Your Documents First

The case turns on connecting a medical condition to specific job duties you can no longer perform. Pull these together before you write anything:

Medical records, including clinical notes, lab results, diagnostic imaging, and treatment history documenting the condition and its progression.
Your official position description, which lists duties, grade, and series. Your HR office can provide it, or you can reference your SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action).
Recent performance evaluations, attendance records, and any formal documentation of performance problems tied to your condition.
Records of any accommodations your agency offered, attempted, or denied, with dates.

Download the current versions of SF 3107 and SF 3112 from OPM’s website or your HR office. If your position description requires lifting 50 pounds and your doctor’s records show a spinal injury limiting you to 10, that pairing tells the story clearly. Line up documents that make the mismatch obvious.

SF 3112A: Applicant’s Statement of Disability

You complete SF 3112A yourself. This is the narrative center of the whole application, so treat it seriously. The form asks when your condition began, what duties you can no longer perform, and what accommodations your agency tried.

Open with the onset date and how the condition has progressed since. Then walk duty-by-duty through your position description. Take each essential function and explain what your body or mind now allows compared with what the job requires. If your position demands sustained concentration for eight hours and your medication causes cognitive fog after two, write that. If the position requires driving and your seizure disorder makes driving unsafe, write that. “I have trouble at work” tells OPM nothing.

If your agency offered accommodations, describe each one and why it failed. Include dates. Modified duties, telework, ergonomic equipment, part-time schedules, reassignment attempts — cover what was tried and what the result was. OPM reviewers look for this timeline to confirm the agency exhausted its options.

Keep the language plain. You’re not writing a clinical report; your doctor handles that on SF 3112C. Your job is the real-world impact. Everything in your statement needs to match what your physician writes on 3112C. Contradictions between the two forms give OPM an easy reason to ask questions or deny the claim. False statements on a federal form can bring fines and up to five years in prison.⁷

SF 3112B: Supervisor’s Statement

Your immediate supervisor fills out SF 3112B with factual observations, not opinions about whether you deserve disability retirement. The form covers attendance patterns, quality and quantity of work, and specific instances where your condition caused problems.

The strongest supervisor statements are concrete: dates of unscheduled absences, tasks left unfinished, errors that increased as the condition worsened, projects reassigned to others. Vague wording like “performance declined somewhat” doesn’t help. When you hand the form to your supervisor, it’s reasonable to point them to specific incidents and dates you’d like them to consider. They still write in their own words, but a supervisor working from memory alone often produces a thinner statement than one with a chronology in front of them.

SF 3112C: Physician’s Statement

Your treating physician completes SF 3112C. The form requires a formal diagnosis, the clinical findings that support it, and a prognosis explaining why the condition is expected to persist for at least one year.

A diagnosis alone will not carry the application. The physician must connect the medical findings directly to your inability to perform specific duties in your position description. For lumbar disc herniation, for example, the statement should spell out that you cannot sit for more than 20 minutes, cannot lift more than five pounds, or cannot stand for extended periods, and then tie those restrictions to what your job actually demands.

The physician should also describe treatment undergone and whether further treatment is expected to restore your ability to work. OPM can deny a claim if you’ve refused available, non-invasive treatment that would ordinarily be expected to help, unless the treatment conflicts with religious beliefs.⁸ Give your doctor a copy of your position description before they fill out the form. Many physicians have never seen a federal position description and will write a generic functional-capacity summary without one.

SF 3112D: Agency Certification of Reassignment and Accommodation Efforts

On SF 3112D, your agency’s HR office certifies what reassignment and accommodation options were explored and why none worked. The agency must show it genuinely searched for a vacant position at the same grade or pay level within your commuting area, and could not accommodate you there or in your current role. This certification is mandatory for both FERS and CSRS applications. If no suitable vacancies existed, or if your medical restrictions ruled out every available opening, the certification should say so explicitly rather than leave the reader guessing.

SF 3112E: Application Checklist

SF 3112E is the completeness check that confirms every component of the package is present before submission. Run through it after all the other forms are done. A missing signature, an unchecked box, or a form the agency forgot to return is the kind of thing that stalls a case for weeks.

Where to Submit the Package

Where you send everything depends on your employment status.

If you’re still employed, or you separated 31 days ago or less, submit the completed SF 3107 and SF 3112 package to your agency’s human resources office. Your agency forwards the materials to OPM.¹

If you separated more than 31 days ago, you handle it yourself. Contact your former supervisor and agency to get SF 3112B, SF 3112D, and SF 3112E completed and returned to you, then mail the full package directly to OPM at:⁶

U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Retirement Operations Center
P.O. Box 45
Boyers, PA 16017-0045

FERS applicants have one more obligation after separation: you must apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). OPM cannot fully process the case without proof you’ve filed. If you withdraw the SSDI application, OPM will dismiss your disability retirement case once Social Security notifies them.⁶ A denial from SSA doesn’t kill the FERS claim; you just need to show you applied.

Documentation Problems That Trigger Denials

Most OPM denials come down to how the SF 3112 package was filled out rather than whether the underlying condition is real. Four patterns show up repeatedly:⁸

The physician’s statement lacks the clinical findings (lab work, imaging, treatment records) needed to support the diagnosis. A bare diagnosis is the single most common problem.
The medical evidence describes a genuine condition, but nobody ties it to specific duties in the position description. The gap between SF 3112C and the duty list is where most claims fall apart.
The medical evidence suggests the condition will resolve within 12 months, so the one-year duration requirement isn’t met.
The employee declined available non-invasive treatment that would ordinarily be expected to help.

Every one of these is a documentation problem you can address while the package is still on your desk. Read your SF 3112A alongside your doctor’s SF 3112C before you submit. Do they describe the same limitations? Does the physician’s statement reference actual duties from your position description or does it stop at a diagnosis and a general functional capacity? If your doctor recommended treatment you chose not to pursue, has the reason been documented? Fixing these gaps before filing is far easier than fixing them on reconsideration.

After OPM receives the package, it assigns a Civil Service Anniversary (CSA) case number, which becomes your reference for all future contact. OPM publishes a processing target of approximately 71 days for immediate retirements, including approved disability cases, though applications that require additional medical clarification take longer.⁹ OPM communicates the decision by mail.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF 3112 Documentation in Support of Disability Retirement Application
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8451 – Disability Retirement
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8337 – Disability Retirement
4
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 844 – Federal Employees Retirement System – Disability Retirement
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8453 – Application
6
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Information About Disability Retirement (FERS)
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
8
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Chapter 60 – Disability Retirement
9
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retirement Processing Times