VA Form 0861 is how a VA employee claims compensatory time off earned during official travel that falls outside a regular tour of duty. You use the form to log each leg of the trip, subtract time that isn’t creditable (your normal commute, hours already inside your workday, extended personal time), and arrive at a net number of hours your supervisor can approve. Approved hours land on your Leave and Earnings Statement as a separate travel comp time balance you can later use as paid time off.
Whether Your Trip Qualifies
The benefit exists under 5 U.S.C. 5550b: each hour a federal employee spends in travel status away from the official duty station that is not otherwise compensable counts as an hour of work for earning compensatory time off.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5550b – Compensatory Time Off for Travel “Not otherwise compensable” does the work in that sentence. If you’re already getting overtime pay, credit hours, or regular pay for the hours in question, those hours don’t also generate travel comp time.
The travel also has to be officially authorized. A supervisor or authorizing official directs the trip and written travel orders back it up. A trip you arrange on your own for professional development or personal convenience, without agency direction, doesn’t qualify. VA Handbook 5007 folds these federal rules into the agency’s pay administration framework.2Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Handbook 5007 – Pay Administration
What Counts as Creditable Travel Time
Creditable time includes the hours you actually spend moving between your official duty station and a temporary duty station (or between two temporary duty stations), plus the “usual waiting time” that comes before or interrupts the trip.3eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1404 – Creditable Travel Time Ordinary airport or train station waits fall into this bucket. What counts as “usual waiting time” is your agency’s call, so practices can vary between VA facilities.
Travel status ends when you arrive at either your temporary worksite or your lodging, whichever comes first. It resumes when you leave the worksite or lodging, whichever you depart from last.3eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1404 – Creditable Travel Time Time at the temporary duty location in between is not travel status.
Extended Waiting Time
Not every delay counts. If you have an extended wait between periods of actual travel and you’re free to rest, sleep, or use the time for your own purposes, that time is not creditable.3eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1404 – Creditable Travel Time A two-hour connecting layover is likely usual waiting time. An overnight layover where you check into a hotel is not. The line between the two is a judgment your agency makes.
Commute Offsets
When you travel directly from home to a temporary duty station outside your official duty station limits, that time is creditable, but you subtract what you would normally spend commuting from home to your regular workplace. The same offset applies on the return.4eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1404 – Creditable Travel Time Normal commute of 30 minutes and two hours of driving to a temporary duty station means you claim 90 minutes, not two hours.
Travel between your home and a transportation terminal inside your official duty station limits is commuting and earns no credit at all. If the terminal is outside those limits, the travel time is creditable but still subject to the commute offset.
Indirect Routes
Take an indirect route for personal reasons and you get credit only for the time the most direct route would have required. The extra hours from the detour aren’t creditable.5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Compensatory Time Off for Travel If your agency authorized a specific routing, stay with it.
Meal Periods
Meal periods during actual travel or waiting time are not specifically excluded from creditable time under the federal rules, and OPM has said so directly.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Compensatory Time Off for Travel – Questions and Answers to Fact Sheet Eating during a layover or on a flight doesn’t require you to subtract time. A long, leisurely stop that goes well beyond a normal meal is another matter, since your agency controls what counts as usual waiting time.
How to Calculate Your Creditable Hours
Do the math before you touch the form. Work through this sequence:
- Add up every segment of actual movement plus usual waiting time at terminals, using your itinerary, boarding passes, and receipts.
- Remove any portion of the travel that fell inside your regular tour of duty. Those hours are already covered by your normal pay.
- For each day you traveled directly from home to a temporary location, or to a terminal outside your duty station limits, deduct your normal one-way commute time.
- Take out any overnight layover or long break where you were free to sleep or handle personal business.
What’s left is your net creditable travel time. Convert it into hours and minutes. On a multi-day round trip, give each leg its own calculation line so the reviewer can follow the total.
Filling Out the Form
VA Form 0861 is available through the VA’s internal publications system at va.gov/vapubs, which is the agency repository for current forms, directives, and handbooks. If you can’t find it there, your local HR office or timekeeping coordinator can provide the current version. Using an outdated edition risks rejection if field layouts or regulatory references have changed.
The form asks for identifying information: your name, employee identification number, job title, and official duty station address. You’ll also need the address of the temporary duty location and the travel authorization or order number.
The body of the form is a timeline. For each day of travel, enter departure and arrival times for every segment. Each leg gets its own row: home to airport, airport to destination city, destination airport to hotel or worksite, and so on. Record times as precisely as your documentation supports. Boarding passes, flight confirmations, and toll receipts all serve as backup if your supervisor or payroll office questions a line.
Below the total travel time, enter your deductions: normal commute time, hours that fell inside your regular tour of duty, and any extended personal waiting time. The form then asks for the net creditable hours in an hours-and-minutes format. Check the arithmetic. Bad subtotals are the most common reason forms come back for correction, and resubmission delays when you can start using the leave.
Submitting for Approval
Route the completed form to your immediate supervisor. Most VA facilities handle this through an electronic HR portal, though some offices still take signed PDFs by internal email or shared drive. Your supervisor compares the times against your travel authorization and itinerary, confirming the hours are accurate and the trip actually required travel outside your regular schedule.
After the supervisor signs off, the form moves to local payroll or HR for entry into the timekeeping system. Approved hours then appear on your Leave and Earnings Statement as a separate travel comp time balance, distinct from regular compensatory time or annual leave.
Submit as soon as possible after the trip. Filing deadlines can vary by VA facility, but prompt submission gets your hours into the correct pay period and spares you having to reconstruct details later. Wait weeks or months and your supervisor may have trouble verifying the trip, and HR may ask for a written explanation of the delay.
Using the Hours Before They Expire
Travel comp time must be used by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period in which it was earned. Anything you don’t use inside that window is forfeited.7eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1407 – Forfeiture of Unused Compensatory Time Off Federal pay periods run two weeks, so 26 pay periods is roughly a year. Track balances and expiration dates on your Leave and Earnings Statement so hours don’t quietly disappear.
There is no cash-out. Federal regulations explicitly prohibit payment for unused travel comp time, and the prohibition extends to surviving beneficiaries in the event of an employee’s death.8eCFR. 5 CFR 550.1408 – Prohibition Against Payment for Unused Compensatory Time Off It’s a use-it-or-lose-it benefit.
Voluntary transfer to another federal agency, or separation from federal service, forfeits any unused balance immediately. There is no provision for payment or transfer of the hours to a new employer.5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Compensatory Time Off for Travel If you know a transfer or retirement is on the calendar, use the hours before your departure date. Once you’re off the rolls, they’re gone.