{"id":39754,"date":"2026-07-03T11:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39754"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:47:26","slug":"opm-marks-last-day-of-paper-ending-paper-retirement-processing-after-more-than-65-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/07\/03\/opm-marks-last-day-of-paper-ending-paper-retirement-processing-after-more-than-65-years\/","title":{"rendered":"OPM Marks \u201cLast Day of Paper,\u201d Ending Paper Retirement Processing After More Than 65 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 7\/1\/26 – Today, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced the \u201cLast Day of Paper,\u201d officially ending paper retirement processing for more than 95 percent of federal retirement applications and completing the agency\u2019s transition to a fully digital retirement process.<\/p>\n

For decades, federal retirement applications relied on a paper-based process that required physical documents to move between agencies, payroll providers, and OPM\u2019s Retirement Operations Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania. As of yesterday, nearly all retirement applications will be submitted and processed electronically through OPM\u2019s\u00a0Online Retirement Application<\/a>\u00a0(ORA), eliminating paper from the process and significantly reducing processing times.<\/p>\n

The milestone follows rapid adoption of ORA, which has processed more than 155,000 retirement applications over the past year after serving only a few hundred users during its initial rollout.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we\u2019re closing the book on one of the federal government\u2019s oldest paper processes,\u201d\u00a0OPM Director Scott Kupor<\/strong>\u00a0said<\/strong>. \u201cFor decades, retirement applications were literally mailed around the country before reaching OPM. That\u2019s over. By moving retirement online, we\u2019re delivering faster decisions, better service, and greater transparency for federal employees while modernizing an essential government function.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transition enables retirees, agency human resources offices, payroll providers, and OPM to work from a single electronic record throughout the retirement process, reducing delays caused by paper handling and manual transfers.<\/p>\n

As part of today\u2019s milestone, OPM is also launching new capabilities designed to accelerate retirement processing, including:<\/p>\n