What Is an SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action)?

The Standard Form 50, or SF-50 Notification of Personnel Action, is the official record of every significant change in your federal civilian career. Each time you are hired, promoted, given a raise, reassigned, or separated, your agency issues a new SF-50 that captures exactly what changed and when.¹ Stacked in order, these forms become the chronological record of your federal service, and that record controls your pay, your benefits, your retirement, and your standing if your agency restructures.

What the Form Records

Each SF-50 is a snapshot of your employment status on a specific date. The form uses numbered blocks, and agencies must follow OPM’s standardized codes and remarks; no agency can change them without OPM’s prior approval.² The blocks you are most likely to reference:

Blocks 1–3 identify you by full legal name, Social Security Number, and date of birth. Errors here ripple into pay and retirement.³
Block 4 shows the effective date of the action.
Blocks 5A–5B give the three-digit Nature of Action code and its plain-text description (promotion, reassignment, retirement, and so on). Blocks 5C–5F cite the legal authority for the action.⁴
Blocks 12 and 20 report your pay before and after the action, split into basic pay, locality adjustment, adjusted basic pay, and other pay.⁴
Block 23 shows your veterans preference code for hiring — none, five-point, or one of the ten-point categories.⁴
Block 24 shows tenure: 0 for no status, 1 for permanent (career), 2 for conditional (career-conditional or probationary), or 3 for indefinite. This code directly affects your rights in a reduction in force.³
Block 30 identifies your retirement plan: FERS, CSRS, the Foreign Service Pension System, or a specialized variant for law enforcement officers, firefighters, or air traffic controllers.⁴
Block 31 is your Service Computation Date, used to set your leave accrual rate; it is adjusted backward if you have prior creditable civilian or military service.⁴
Block 34 shows whether you serve in the competitive service, the excepted service, or the Senior Executive Service. That classification governs your ability to move between positions and your rights in adverse actions.⁴

The form also records your health and life insurance elections, work schedule, and the organizational codes for your employing agency and duty station.

When a New SF-50 Is Issued

Federal law requires agencies to report appointments, separations, transfers, resignations, and removals to OPM, and OPM must keep records of each.⁵ In practice you receive an SF-50 for:

Your initial appointment into federal civilian service.
Promotions and reassignments to a higher grade, different position, or new duty station.
Within-grade increases when you move to the next step in your current grade based on time-in-grade and acceptable performance.⁶
Government-wide pay adjustments, such as annual raises and locality pay changes.
Benefit changes, including retirement plan switches and life insurance updates.
Temporary actions such as details, suspensions, and furloughs.
Separation, whether by resignation, retirement, or removal.

The separation SF-50 is the one you will need to apply for a federal retirement annuity, withdraw from the Thrift Savings Plan, or prove your service history when you apply for another federal position. Each SF-50 is archived permanently.¹

How to Get a Copy If You Currently Work for the Government

Current federal employees access their SF-50s through the electronic Official Personnel Folder, or eOPF. The eOPF is a secure portal that stores digital copies of every document in your personnel folder, and it emails you whenever a new document is filed.⁷ Your latest SF-50 usually sits at the top of the chronological list.

Sign in with your PIV card or another credential that satisfies your agency’s multi-factor authentication requirements. Each agency runs its own eOPF portal, so ask your HR office for the correct URL if you don’t have it. HR can also pull an SF-50 from your folder directly if you can’t get into the system.

How to Get a Copy If You’ve Left Federal Service

When you leave, your Official Personnel Folder transfers from eOPF to the National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives.⁸ Send a written request to:

National Archives and Records Administration
National Personnel Records Center (Civilian)
1411 Boulder Blvd, Valmeyer, IL 62295⁹

The request must be in writing, hand-signed in cursive, and dated within the past year. Include your full name, date of birth, Social Security Number, the name and duty station of your last employing agency, and the approximate dates of your federal employment. You can also fax the request to (618) 496-4903 or (618) 496-4904.⁹ Basic personnel information is generally provided to former federal civilian employees at no charge.¹⁰ Allow at least ten business days for NPRC to begin processing, and longer during busy periods.

One point of confusion worth clearing up: Standard Form 180 and the eVetRecs online system are for military service records, not civilian personnel files.¹¹ Use them only if you also need military records like a DD-214.¹²

Fixing an Error on Your SF-50

A misspelled name, wrong pay grade, or bad effective date is a records error, and you have a right to have it corrected.¹³

If you still work for a federal agency, contact your servicing HR office. The agency that discovers the error processes a correction action (Nature of Action code 002) to fix the original SF-50, regardless of when the error occurred or which agency made it. The correction updates the erroneous data without erasing the fact that the original action happened. Minor errors in data OPM does not track can be fixed by pen-and-ink, but agencies may never use white-out, erasures, or pencil on data OPM requires.¹⁴

If you have left federal service, write to the Deputy Associate Director, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of Personnel Management, 1900 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20415-6000. Identify the record by name and Social Security Number, explain what is wrong, attach supporting evidence, and state how the record should be corrected.¹³

This process only fixes what the record says. If you disagree with the action itself — for example, you believe a demotion was unjustified — you would file a grievance or appeal within the applicable time limits rather than request a records correction.

Why Accuracy Matters in a Reduction in Force

If your agency runs a reduction in force, the data on your SF-50 decides where you land on the retention register. Agencies rank employees using four factors, all pulled straight from your personnel record:¹⁵

Tenure (Block 24). Permanent career employees (Group I) have the strongest standing, career-conditional and probationary employees (Group II) come next, and indefinite, term, and other non-status appointments (Group III) are most vulnerable.¹⁶
Veterans preference (Block 26). Within each tenure group, veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more rank highest, followed by other preference-eligible veterans, then non-veterans.
Length of service (Block 31). Within each veterans-preference subgroup, employees are ranked by total creditable federal civilian and military service.
Performance ratings. You get extra retention service credit based on the average of your last three annual ratings: 20 years for “Outstanding,” 16 for “Exceeds Fully Successful,” and 12 for “Fully Successful.”

An error in your tenure code, service computation date, or veterans preference could cost you your position in a restructuring. Reviewing your most recent SF-50 for accuracy is one of the simplest ways to protect yourself.

When Records Are Missing

Personnel records sometimes go missing, especially for employees who served decades ago or worked at agencies that have since reorganized or closed. When an SF-50 or payroll record cannot be located, OPM accepts alternative proof of service.

If your service was covered by Social Security, a detailed earnings statement from the Social Security Administration, showing employment periods and employer names, can prove that service.¹⁷ Request your earnings information at ssa.gov or through a local Social Security office.

When no official government records exist at all, agencies can accept secondary evidence, but only after confirming that official records are lost, destroyed, or incomplete. OPM ranks that evidence by reliability: official documents such as appointment letters, separation notices, pay change notices, travel orders, or payroll cards carry the most weight; private records such as tax returns, employment applications, or personal correspondence from the period carry moderate weight; and sworn affidavits from you and at least two others with direct knowledge — preferably former supervisors — carry the least. Claims supported only by affidavits are more likely to be rejected.¹⁷

A Note for Postal Service Employees

If you work for the U.S. Postal Service, your personnel actions are documented on a PS Form 50 rather than the standard SF-50. It serves the same purpose but is generated by the Postal Service’s Human Resources Shared Service Center rather than through the OPM system.¹⁸ For copies, contact your district HR office or the HRSSC.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Is a Standard Form 50 (SF 50)?
2
Office of Personnel Management. Chapter 4: Requesting and Documenting Personnel Actions
3
Bureau of Indian Education. Understanding Your Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50)
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Form 50
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 2951: Reports to the Office of Personnel Management
6
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 531 – Pay Under the General Schedule
7
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Privacy Impact Assessment for Electronic Official Personnel Folder System (eOPF)
8
National Archives. National Personnel Records Center (NPRC)
9
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. How Can I Get a Copy of My Official Personnel Folder (SF-50)?
10
National Archives. Official Personnel Folders (OPFs), Federal (Non-Archival) Holdings
11
General Services Administration / National Archives and Records Administration. Standard Form 180 – Request Pertaining to Military Records
12
National Archives and Records Administration. Veteran Records: Home
13
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Should I Do If My Records Are Wrong?
14
OPM.gov. Chapter 32: Interim Relief Actions, Corrections, Cancellations, and Replacement Actions for Cancellations
15
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Reductions in Force (RIF)
16
eCFR. 5 CFR 351.501 – Order of Retention, Competitive Service
17
Office of Personnel Management. Statement of Prior Federal Service (Standard Form 144)
18
U.S. Postal Service. ELM Revision: Health Benefits Program