Date of Separation?

[T2Pilot]

Don't believe anything anyone tells you until you see it in writing in the current AFIs. No matter what career field you're in you've got to know the personnel and the finance AFIs otherwise you will get screwed at some point. I don't think anyone tries to do this on purpose - just training gaps and misinterpretation. There have been many times where I was told "no" or "you can't do that" until I showed them the AFI. It's not right and you can complain about studying the regs for hours but that's the way it is. By the way personnel specialists in the Air Force are mostly going away. Soon it will all be self-service with only the web and AFPC to help you.

 

[RickKC-135]

The answer to your question is; the AF requires 120 days notice. Then you add any terminal leave and permissive TDY you plan to take. Thats why they typically say 6 months (4 months notice plus 2 months leave). However, if you have orders in hand and can complete the outprocessing, you can leave at the 120 days minus your terminal leave and TDY, so the absolute quickest you can get out is 40 days. I just applied for separation last month and it took 4 days to get my orders, so the 40 days is definately possible. On the other end the latest date you can establish is 1 year, unless it's a 7 day opt, then it's 6 months. The reason this is contingent on your orders is because they have to ensure you have meet all your commitments prior to publishing the orders i.e the date you picked is after your commitment.