OPM Online Retirement Application (ORA): Filing and Decisions

The OPM online retirement application, hosted at retire.opm.gov, is the digital replacement for the paper SF 3107 and SF 2801 forms that federal and Postal Service employees once used to file for immediate retirement.¹ You don’t start it yourself. Your agency’s HR office creates your profile in the system, sends you an email invitation, and from there you log in with Login.gov, fill in each section, upload your supporting documents, and certify the package with a digital signature PIN. HR then reviews everything and forwards it up the chain to OPM. As of February 2026, OPM was adjudicating immediate retirement claims in an average of 71 days.²

Who Can File Through ORA

The system is open to current federal and U.S. Postal Service employees covered by FERS or CSRS who are applying for immediate retirement.³ It does not handle deferred annuities, Thrift Savings Plan distributions, or Social Security. If you already separated and want to claim a deferred annuity later, you still file the paper RI 92-19.⁴

Confirm You Qualify for an Immediate Annuity

ORA only works if you are eligible for an immediate benefit. FERS employees qualify under any of these age-and-service combinations:⁵

Age 62 with 5 years of creditable civilian service.
Age 60 with 20 years of service, unreduced.
Minimum Retirement Age with 30 years of service, unreduced.
MRA with 10 years of service, reduced 5 percent per year under age 62 unless you postpone the start date.

Your MRA depends on when you were born. Anyone born from 1953 through 1964 has an MRA of 56; if you were born in 1970 or later, it is 57. The full table sits on OPM’s FERS eligibility page.⁵

How the Process Begins

Tell your HR office you intend to retire. An HR specialist then builds your applicant profile in ORA and pre-fills basic employment data.⁶ Give HR a personal email address, not your government one, because you lose access to work email after separation. That personal email needs to be tied to a Login.gov account.⁷

Once your profile exists, you get an invitation email. Log in at retire.opm.gov, link your Login.gov credentials, and create a digital signature PIN. You will use that PIN to certify the finished application. If you don’t already have a Login.gov account, set one up before HR opens your profile so nothing stalls at the gate.⁷

What to Have Ready Before You Log In

Have your Social Security number and, if you are married, your spouse’s Social Security number and marriage certificate. For direct deposit, keep your bank’s nine-digit routing number and your account number in front of you. A recent leave and earnings statement helps you confirm current grade, step, and pay for the salary fields.

Documents You’ll Upload

ORA accepts PDF attachments inside the application itself.⁷ Typical uploads include a marriage certificate and, for anyone with military service, a DD-214 (Member-4 or Service-2 copy). Your HR specialist reviews every uploaded file and can reject any that are illegible or wrong, which bounces the application back to you for corrections.⁶

Military Service Deposit

If you want military time credited toward your civilian annuity, you generally have to complete the military service deposit before you retire. The deposit covers the retirement contributions you would have paid during those years. Accepted documentation includes a DD-214, an NA Form 13038, or an official letter from the appropriate branch on letterhead.⁸ Apply within three years of entering civilian service and no interest accrues; after that, interest is charged. Payments are nonrefundable, so decide before you start.

FEGLI Beneficiaries Are Not in ORA

The application does not update Federal Employees Group Life Insurance beneficiaries. To change those, complete a paper SF 2823, have two witnesses sign it (neither can be a beneficiary), and give it to your agency before you separate.⁹ Easy to miss when everything else is online.

The Decisions ORA Locks In

Survivor Annuity

If you are married, you must pick one of three FERS survivor options: a full survivor annuity equal to 50 percent of your unreduced benefit, a partial annuity equal to 25 percent, or none. Any survivor benefit reduces your monthly payment while you are alive. Waiving the survivor annuity requires your spouse’s written consent, and OPM will not process the waiver without it except in narrow situations like a missing spouse.¹⁰ The election is irrevocable once your retirement becomes final.

Health and Life Insurance Continuation

To carry FEHB and FEGLI into retirement, you must have been enrolled in each program for the five years of service immediately before your annuity starts, or since your first opportunity to enroll if that was less than five years ago.¹¹ ORA has you confirm enrollment for both. If you dropped coverage at any point during those five years, you may not be able to continue it as a retiree.

Federal Tax Withholding

The application asks what to withhold from your monthly annuity. You can pick a filing status with allowances or ask for a flat dollar amount. State withholding is not part of ORA; once payments start, you set it through OPM’s Retirement Services Online.¹²

Certifying and Submitting

When every section is complete, ORA shows a summary page listing every entry, including bank digits, beneficiaries, and insurance elections. Review it. When it is correct, enter your digital signature PIN to certify, and submit. The package goes to your agency’s HR office, not directly to OPM.⁶

If HR spots a problem, such as a missing document or a mismatched service date, the specialist rejects that item and it comes back to you. Fix it, re-certify, resubmit. Once HR approves the application, they build the Certified Summary of Service and you approve that summary. After both reach “ready for payroll” status, HR certifies the full package and sends it to payroll for final processing.

What Happens After You Submit

Your agency’s payroll office generates an electronic retirement record and forwards it to OPM’s Retirement Operations Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania.¹³ OPM usually starts interim annuity payments within about eight days. Interim payments run around 80 percent of your estimated final annuity, enough to keep bills paid while claims examiners work through the full adjudication.²

Full adjudication averaged 71 days for immediate retirements processed in February 2026. Complex cases can take longer, including those with military service deposits, multiple agency transfers, or periods of part-time work. When adjudication finishes, OPM assigns you a CSA (Civil Service Active) claim number, sets your annuity to the correct permanent amount, and pays any back money owed from the gap between interim and final rates.¹⁴

Managing Your Annuity After It Starts

Once your annuity is established, you handle it through OPM’s Retirement Services Online at servicesonline.opm.gov. If you used the same Login.gov account for ORA, you can log straight in without a new profile.¹⁵ The portal lets you view payment details, update direct deposit, adjust federal and state withholding, and change your mailing address. For anything the portal cannot resolve, the Retirement Operations Center in Boyers takes calls and written correspondence.¹³

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. OPM Online Retirement Application
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retirement Processing Times
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. ORA – Online Retirement Application Help
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Applying for Immediate Retirement Under the Federal Employees Retirement System
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. OPM Retirement Center – FERS Information – Eligibility
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Online Retirement Application Human Resources Specialist Guide
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Online Retirement Application
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Defense Finance and Accounting Service. What is Military Buy Back?
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Designation of Beneficiary – Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Program
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8416 – Survivor Reduction for a Current Spouse
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Is the Five-Year/All Opportunity Rule for Continuing Life Insurance Into Retirement?
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Change Your Federal and State Income Tax Withholdings
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Contact OPM Retirement Services
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Is the OPM Retirement Claim Number?
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Getting Started With OPM Retirement Services Online