Know where you stand in the OPM pipeline.
Compare your retirement timeline against OPM public stats and opt-in retiree timelines. Understand whether you're likely stuck at agency, payroll, OPM intake, adjudication, or final payment — and what to do next.
Independently built. Not affiliated with OPM. No access to OPM internal systems.
This is the ladder OPM moves your case through. The tracker tells you which rung you’re on, how long that rung usually takes, and what “Adjudication” really means when OPM’s own status page won’t.
Seven days — but from when?
The official line
“A commitment to issue a retiree's first pension payment within seven days of retirement for applicants who submit a complete retirement package by their separation date.”
The lived reality
“7 months and counting. Not one dime.”
That's one of thousands saying the same thing — across Reddit, Facebook, and X. OPM's seven-day clock doesn't start when you retire; it starts once payroll finishes with you. This tracker lives in that gap.
The numbers, from OPM itself
What the official timeline actually looks like.
These are OPM’s own published figures — not our estimates. The tracker reads your case against them so you can tell a normal wait from a stuck one.
For scale: OPM’s retirement backlog stood at 24,784 cases at the end of Jul 2026 — down from the 65,237-case peak in Feb 2026. Full monthly history →
Source: OPM Monthly Retirement Processing Status (Jul 2026 — backward-looking monthly averages that shift month to month; directional, not a promise about any one case) and the OPM Agency Retirement Case Accuracy Report (the government-wide healthy-case rate is a standing structural figure, 81–86% across OPM’s reporting).
What you’ll see
Your whole case on one screen — the parts the portal hides.
Your tracker ·
Before OPM
your datesThe steps OPM doesn’t control — where the early wait actually goes.
What are these dates — and how do I add them?
Each date here is a handoff — the day that office finished with your package and sent it on (not the day it arrived there). Tap a step to add or correct its date. Just retired? It’s normal to have none of these yet — your agency HR and payroll office can tell you when they sent it, and your first interim payment is the sign OPM has it.
Why does the Before OPM part take so long?
OPM’s target for this stretch is 30–45 days. Per Director Kupor’s Jan-2026 “Peeling the Onion,” real averages run ~60 days at agency HR + ~51 at payroll — ~111 days before OPM even receives your package. It varies by agency and payroll provider. If you’re stuck here with no movement, the bottleneck is almost always agency-HR-side, not OPM.
This is where your OPM clock starts.
Including the 7-day interim-pay promise — no matter how long the steps above took.
At OPM
Week 23 at OPMOPM’s five case stages. If you filed digitally, Services Online shows the stage you’re in right now — one at a time, with a date.
How do I know which stage I'm in?
Filed digitally (ORA)? Log into Services Online — it shows the stage your case is in right now, with a date. You’ll see one stage at a time (Intake, Development, Adjudication…), not all five as a checklist. Filed on paper? Services Online likely shows the older interim-pay case status (green checkmarks) instead of these stages — call OPM at 1-888-767-6738 to ask where your case is.
My stage went backwards — what do I do?
A backward move is a correction in progress, not a rejection. When a later stage flags a missing document or a calculation error, your case bounces back to the stage that owns the fix — that’s how you end up correct rather than finalized-but-wrong. It’s usually a specific missing document, often one of the documents your What to watch panel flags — it delays your case, it doesn’t undo your progress. To record it, tap that stage above and log it — the strip re-draws the real path and keeps the full history. The fuller decode is in What your portal is actually telling you below; a backward move mostly needs no call — the Kit’s escalation lane is there if it stays stuck.
Have the dates? Add them.
Tap any stage above and enter the date Services Online shows with it — that’s when SOL last updated your stage, a close stand-in for when your case entered it (which is why stage durations show as ~approximate). The strip advances, and once two stages have dates you’ll see about how long your case sat in each. Intake is dated automatically from OPM-receipt. All optional — a partial trail still tells the story.
Interim pay — what it means
72% of base annuityWhy your interim is lower than your annuity.
Receiving now (gross)
$2,990/mo
Est. base annuity (gross)
$4,150/mo
- State tax isn’t withheld during interim — OPM’s own line: “OPM cannot set up a state tax withholding for annuitants who are receiving interim payments.” You set it up after finalization via Services Online.
- FEHB and FEGLI premiums aren’t deducted yet — they reconcile at finalization.
- The FERS supplement (RAS) isn’t included in interim, even if you’re eligible.
More on how interim behaves
OPM targets 60–80%, but real checks vary widely — across tracked cases, first interim checks have run anywhere from about 10% to 92%, with roughly half landing below 60% — so plan for less until your own number arrives. On your OPM statement it shows as the “Interim\Special Pay Payment” line.
One more OPM note: the federal tax withheld from your first interim payment is often higher than later payments. OPM adjusts this when it finishes processing — if your first check felt low, this is part of why, and it reconciles at finalization.
Money & mail
Events, not stages
Annuity payments run a month in arrears — OPM’s own notice puts it: “your June 1 payment pays your annuity for the month of May.” And when the 1st falls on a weekend or holiday, the deposit lands the next business day.
What to watch, given your case
Based on what you told us, these are the specifics worth keeping an eye on. Nothing here needs action today unless it says so.
Case reference
- Case number
- Agency
- FBI
- Retirement date
- Sep 30, 2025
- Submission
- ORA (electronic)
- Payroll
- NFC
Why your claim number looks different on different OPM papers
OPM prints the same number three ways: your annuity statement may space it out (“CSA 9 XXXXXX 3”), Services Online drops the CS (“A9XXXXXX3”), and the welcome letter writes it as “CSAN #A9XXXXXX3.” All the same number — match the characters, not the spacing or prefix.
FBI · Q3 2025 · ORA · COAP
Among cases that separated the same quarter as you (Jul–Sep 2025), 58% have reached this stage by Week 23 — from opt-in retiree timelines plus OPM aggregates.
Why we compare by quarter
You separated in the Sept–Dec 2025 separation wave — a queue pile-up, not a per-case problem. Everyone who retired in that window is running months longer than early-2026 retirees, who hit far smaller queues. A long wait here is normal for people who retired when you did — don’t measure yourself against a fast Jan-2026 finalizer; you’re not in the same race.
Above is a composite case — a realistic federal retiree in limbo, not a real person’s file. When you start tracking, this is your case, with your dates and how you compare to retirees like you.
Start tracking your case.
Enter your dates and see where your case stands — free, and no account needed.
The Limbo Kit · $19
Available nowThe escalation playbook for when the wait won’t end.
Letter templates, the phone-tree decoded, the congressional-inquiry lane, the annuity-verification worksheet, and the COAP two-track playbook — everything we’d hand a friend stuck at Week 23. It ships with the tracker at launch.
Questions, answered straight
Before you start
What's OPM?
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management — the agency that processes your federal retirement after your agency and payroll office hand off your package. Until OPM finalizes your case, you’re paid an estimated “interim” amount. This tracker is about that wait.
Who is this for?
Federal retirees whose package is somewhere in the OPM pipeline — agency, payroll, intake, adjudication, or final payment — and who want to understand where they stand and what to do next. Especially useful if you’re past the months OPM quotes and the portal still just says “in process.”
How is the comparison data calculated?
From two sources: OPM’s own published processing statistics, and opt-in timelines that retirees choose to contribute. We group by the things that actually change your wait — agency, retirement date, paper vs. electronic, court order — and only show a comparison when enough cases exist to mean something. When too few cases match yours, we show the OPM aggregates alone instead of a misleading number.
Do you have access to my OPM case?
No. We have no access to OPM systems, and we never will. Everything you see is built from what you enter plus public OPM data. We’re independently built and not affiliated with OPM.
What's the standard timeline?
OPM publishes its own guidance. The two canonical references are OPM’s Retirement Quick Guide and the CSRS and FERS Handbook, OPM’s canonical rulebook. OPM’s own “Process at a Glance” puts the whole thing at 3–5 months end to end — roughly 30–45 days at your agency and payroll, 10–15 days for OPM intake, then 10–90 days for OPM processing. That’s the target; recent actuals have been running longer (see the OPM numbers above). The tracker shows your case against those published timelines.
Why do I see “65,000 backlog” on social media?
That was February 2026’s real peak — 65,237 cases, OPM’s own number. OPM’s latest figure (July 2026) is 24,784. Big, stale numbers keep circulating long after they stop being current; the tracker always shows the latest published month with the date on it, so you know exactly which number you’re looking at.
Is the fast lane real?
Yes. Recent clean electronic (ORA) cases have been finalizing in roughly 26–45 days (June–July 2026, community-reported), while many 9/30/2025 retirees are still waiting at 9–11 months. Both are real — and which lane a case lands in isn’t visible in advance. That gap, between the fast headline and the slow reality, is exactly what this tracker exists to help you read.
Are FERS benefits being cut?
Through August 2026, no FERS benefit cut has taken effect. The 2025 proposals that drew the most attention — moving from a high-3 to a high-5 average salary, eliminating the FERS annuity supplement, and raising employee contribution rates — were all removed before the reconciliation bill became law, and nothing since has changed them. The tracker doesn’t predict policy; it tracks where YOUR case stands today.
Why is OPM running long?
OPM’s official “Process at a Glance” (3–5 months) assumes a fully-staffed retirement operation. In 2025 OPM lost a meaningful share of its staff to Deferred Resignation Programs (DRPs) and VERAs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found OPM’s total headcount fell 35% (1,052 people) between December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2026, and separately that Retirement Services shrank 16% (−165 FTEs) from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2026 (GAO-26-108916). GAO didn’t tie those cuts to case timelines; the OPM Inspector General (November 2025) did, finding the reductions “created immediate gaps in operational capacity.” Audience-direct on Reddit r/FedEmployees, May 2026: “If OPM can develop and release a new AI tool, why can’t they process a retirement package under 6–9 months?” Top reply: “Because OPM staff took the DRPs in large numbers.” This tracker reflects what’s actually happening to your case — not the published target timeline.