How long does an agency keep an employee's Official Personnel Folder after they leave?

When a federal employee leaves government service, the agency does not simply hold onto that person’s Official Personnel Folder (OPF) indefinitely, nor does it dispose of it right away. The OPF follows a defined lifecycle set by governmentwide records schedules and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal civilian personnel recordkeeping.

What happens at separation

The OPF is the long-term record of an employee’s federal career: appointments, position changes, pay history, benefits elections, and similar documents. When an employee separates, the agency closes out the folder and, after a short retention period in the agency, generally transfers it to OPM for centralized storage. For most civilian employees, OPFs are sent to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), part of the National Archives, where they are retained for an extended period before final disposition.

The general timeline

A few principles drive the retention period:

• Short agency hold first. Agencies typically keep the closed OPF on hand briefly after separation to handle final actions, then transfer it out.
• Long-term centralized retention. Once at the records center, OPFs are kept for many decades so that former employees, survivors, and agencies can verify service history for retirement, benefits, and reemployment.
• Eventual transfer to permanent archives. OPFs are ultimately treated as permanent records and accessioned into the National Archives long after the employee leaves, ensuring the service history survives indefinitely.

The exact intervals are governed by the General Records Schedules (GRS) and OPM guidance rather than a single uniform number, so the specific years depend on the applicable schedule in effect.

Why it matters

The OPF supports retirement claims, benefits adjudication, and responses to inquiries that can arise long after someone leaves federal service. Because these needs can surface decades later, the records are protected well beyond an employee’s tenure. Personnel records also contain protected personal information, so access and disclosure are constrained by the Privacy Act and agency policy throughout the retention period.

Agencies should always confirm the current authority — the applicable GRS item and OPM instructions — before disposing of or transferring any personnel folder.

For related guidance, see the federal records topic hub.