Important facts about leave sell backs:
- IMA members can request a leave sell back for unused leave within 6 years of the close out of a long tour order.
- Any leave outside of this 6-year claim period cannot be sold back to the member due to the Barring Act.
- The lifetime cap for sell backs is 60-days, but there is an exception.
- Leave sold back for long tours over 30 days and under 365 days are not counted towards the IMA member’s 60-day lifetime cap.
- Any leave sold back for long tour orders over 365 days will count towards the 60-day lifetime cap.
- HQ RIO/RPO can only process one leave sell back per pay period. Technicians must verify that an LES has populated for the current sell back before they can process another sell back.
- If the leave sell back request is for an order that ended 5 years ago or after October 1, 2019, a CMS case will need to be created to sell back the leave. This will push the processing time back because DFAS has up to 30 days to respond to CMS cases. Per AFRC/FM, if the order ended before October 1, 2019, a Barring Act waiver must be completed and sent to SAF/FMF for approval. The Barring Act waiver request must be completed and sent to SAF/FMF by the member.
- If the IMA member chooses to carry forward some of their leave to a new order and sell back the rest of their leave, the carryover must be completed before the sell back can be processed.
- The leave sell back processing interval is 90+ days. Processing times are longer than usual due to a high volume of AFIPPs Data Cleansing requests and the sell back processing pause initiated by AFRC/FM from January 2025 through April 2025.
Sell back requests are being processed in the order they were received.
**If your MyFSS case was closed, please know that your sell back request is being tracked. As we work through the backlog of sell back requests, we will reopen your MyFSS case and verify your documentation. If corrections or additional documentation is required, we will notify you and the case will be reclosed. Please ensure you read the correspondence thoroughly. Once you have prepared the requested corrected/additional documentation, please respond to the original MyFSS case and submit your documentation.**
If you receive an email requesting corrections or additional documentation, the processing time WILL NOT start over.
There are no exceptions to the required documentation necessary to complete your leave sell back request.
AFR AFIPPS DATA CLEANSE
Important facts about leave sell back AFR AFIPPS data cleanse:
- If you receive an email from the AFR AFIPPS Data Cleanse Team, you are required to provide all the required documentation as listed below.
- If at the time of your orders your Reserve Pay Office was NOT HQ RIO RPO, you will need to provide a copy of each AF Form 988 Part III for leave taken during that order. HQ RIO RPO does not have access to this documentation.
Required Documentation:
AF FORM 1089A – AIR RESERVE COMPONENT LEAVE SETTLEMENT OPTION
Section I – IDENTIFICATION DATA
- Section II – LEAVE SETTLEMENT ON END OF ORDER
- Provide projected end date of your active-duty tour – XX/XX/XXXX
- Provide order number(s) of your active-duty tour – XXXXXX – Block 32 of AF Form 938
- Complete Block A, B, or C
- Block A - Number of days to be sold back ONLY
- Block B – Number of days to be carried forward ONLY
- Block C – Number of days to be sold back and number of days to be carried forward.
AF FORM 938 – REQUEST AND AUTHORIZATION FOR ACTIVE-DUTY TRAINING/ACTIVE DUTY TOUR
- STATEMENT OF TOUR OF DUTY
- Complete Blocks 36a through 39
- Blocks 38 – Must be a digital or wet signature – digital signatures must be after the LAST day of the active-duty tour - .pdf signatures will not be accepted
- Block 39 – Must be dated after the LAST day of the active-duty tour
- CERTIFICATION
- Complete Blocks 40 through 44
- Block 40 must include time and date member reported for duty and time and date member was released from duty
- Blocks 41 and 42 – Must include the certifying official’s name and DSN
- Blocks 43 - Must be a digital or wet signature – digital signatures must be after the LAST day of the active-duty tour - .pdf signatures will not be accepted
- Block 44 - Must be dated after the LAST day of the active-duty tour
- All pages of the AF Form 938 and all modifications
- If the sell back request is for back-to-back orders, ALL AF Form 938s and modifications must be submitted and completed as noted above.
AF FORM 988 PART IS AND PART IIIS, AS REQUESTED
- All AF Form 988 Part Is and Part IIIs should have been submitted before the end of the order.
- If any AF Form 988 Part Is or Part IIIs are missing, IMA members are required to submit them with their sell back request.
- If during a review of the IMA member’s leave requests it is discovered documentation is missing, the IMA member will be required to submit it before HQ RIO will move forward with the request.
NOTE: There are currently no exceptions to the documentation requirement policy. It is the IMA members responsibility to ensure they complete their orders certification at the end of their long tour order and that the AF Form 938 is completed correctly. IMA members can attempt to certify their close out orders through AROWS-R.
Common Mistakes That Increase Sell Back Processing Times:
- Missing documentation
- Missing signatures
- AF Form 938s not fully completed
- IMA member crossed out and initialed the close out dates on their AF Form 938
- AF Form 938s not signed and dated after the last day of the active-duty tour
Document Links