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June 16, 2025
Effective June 2, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) implemented the full rollout of the federal government’s first-ever fully digital retirement application system. All new federal retirement applications must now be submitted electronically, using the Office of Personnel Management’s Online Retirement Application (ORA). ORA is designed to streamline the application process, reduce wait times and provide a more user-friendly experience.
What You Need to Know:
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Beginning June 2, 2025: All new retirement applications must be submitted online. Paper forms will no longer be accepted and will be returned to the submitter for digital submission.
- Paper applications submitted prior to June 2, 2025, are grandfathered in and do not need to be resubmitted using ORA.
Why This Change?
The new government-wide process is designed to simplify your retirement application experience:
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Faster Processing: Digital submissions reduce handling time, enabling retirement applications to be processed quicker.
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Easier Tracking: Employees can monitor the status of their application online, reducing uncertainty.
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Secure and Reliable: Employees can upload their documents securely, ensuring safe and efficient handling.
What’s Next?
Follow these simple steps when you are ready to submit your retirement application:
- Contact the AHR Benefits Operations Center (BOC) at Benefits@faa.gov and provide the date you intend to retire and your personal (non-FAA) email address.
- Once your account is created, ORA will send you an email notification which will include a link to access your account.
- You will then login in with the Login.gov account associated with the email address you provided to the BOC to complete the account setup.
- The BOC will then create a Pre-Application for you and you will receive an email notification once it’s completed.
- You will then be able to complete the required retirement forms electronically.
Guidance for Employees Accepting the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP):
Retirements received for DRP will be processed as outlined above depending on whether you submitted prior to June 2, 2025 or after. Employees who plan to retire under the DRP but who have not submitted a completed retirement will receive an email notification once their ORA Account is completed. They will then follow steps three through five outlined above.
If you are applying for disability retirement, you must submit your application to Benefits@faa.gov.
Need Assistance?
If you have any questions, please contact the AHR Benefits Operations Center (BOC) at benefits@faa.gov.
You will also find frequently asked questions on the OPM ORA Help website.
We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we move towards a faster, paperless retirement process that better serves you.
Office of Human Resource Management
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