I am currently a NSPS DOD employee overseas on my own orders. I followed my fiance overseas. I am here for 3 years he for two years. He can not extend, and they won't let me go early, so I have to make a decision to either stay behind, or resign or get married. If I get married to him shortly before he PCSes to the States, can I get amended to his orders? When I go back to the States with him, will that offer me more protection career wise as spouse? I am a NSPS YA-02 and i have been with the government for eight years. Thanks!

Just another question, I read that civilian employees who are also military spouses and go with their husbands on their order, can by regulation go into Leave Without Pay Status (LWOP) so they do not have to break from service. Is this true??

I dont know what you mean by protection career wise, but moving as a mil spouse doesn't offer any protection. You have to apply for jobs at whatever location you go to. It's like starting all over again. And also, keep in mind, if you moved overseas on the gvt's expense and you are on orders there, breaking the transportation contract might end up in you having to pay back part of the moving expenses.
Yes, you can go on LWOP for a year due to PCS orders ( I am in this situation). You might or might not get added to his orders if you get married before he leaves. It is up to how fast paperwork goes through and how fast the DA moves when it comes to sending down the orders. Also, you have to have a copy of his orders to go on LWOP. See the vicious circle here?
My personal advice is to hang tight for another year and stay behind. Get married when you get back to the States.
You should have no issue finding a job with the gvt, as you have been in the system for well over 52 weeks.
Good luck.

As a military spouse you can go into LWOP status by regulation, single I could not without supervisor approval, which she never would. Luckily I am way past my 12 month minimum stay in my transportation agreement, so I would owe the government nothing for my move. I would really consider staying here, if it weren't for the fact that I am very unhappy here and that my fiance and I are constantly apart. We spent 15 months apart, then I moved overseas to be with him only to be seperated by TDYs and long deployments. He is currently in Afghanistan until January and then will PCS to the States in April. It's a hard decision.

Are you going to need a recommendation from your supervisor when you try to get another job? Will your resigning effect the type of recommendation you receive? I don't know your career field, but depending on the base he PCS's to there may or may not be job openings in your career field. I went from a GS-11 to a GS-03 because my LWOP was running out and there were no job openings in my career field where we PCS'd to.

Since his DEROS is in April, I don't think he has orders yet, correct? So you don't know if he will deploy of have a number of TDYs in the new job. If he deploys, are the timezones closer if you stay where you are rather than if you move to the states? Something to consider communication-wise.

I'm not trying to tell you which to do, but rather want you to consider the impact your decision can have.

I am a YA-02 the equivalent of a GS-11. Wow, to go to a GS-03 that is rough. If my husband to be gets a good base I should have a good chance of getting a job in my career field. I actually have return rights to my previous base, so if he gets my base, then I will stick it out 12 more months and go home frequently.

does anyone know what regulation the lwop for up to a year can be found in. my hr says that my supervisor would have to approve it. in discussions with my supervisors they were saying if i applied they wouldn't be able to do it for more than a month or so, but when i look on mwr.navy.mil and look at info for spouses, it says that it "must" be done for us, in increments of 60 or 90 days for up to year. i want to do this, especially so i don't feel rushed to find a new job, not knowing what the commute would be like, not knowing what the living situation will be, and most importantly what selection of jobs is available.....but am feeling pressure from my current job end, because they won't want to pay benefits, and will not want to fill the job with a temporary postion...this is very stressful...:P

My understanding is that it has to be approved by your supervisors. I have done this twice; once I was on LWOP for 9 months and the second time I was LWOP for 3 months. I had to request a personnel action through my losing agency.

That being said, I believe you are allowed to go on 6 months/year on LWOP before it counts against you. So while you can technically go 1 yr on LWOP, you kind of have to time it right: ie July to December, then January to June. Otherwise, if you were to go May to December, you will get deducted 30 days for time in service.

Try looking googling OPM. I know its in there somewhere, I had to look for it myself several years ago.

Good luck.

mrs brown. do you mean "must" as in 'they have no other choice than to approve it', or do you mean must as in 'they need to approve it before you can do it'?

has he discussed doing an IPCOT? that would extend him a year.

quote:

Originally posted by cnoel:
mrs brown. do you mean "must" as in 'they have no other choice than to approve it', or do you mean must as in 'they need to approve it before you can do it'?

I meant that I required my losing agency's permission to go on LWOP, not that they were required to give it to me automatically.

I worked with the agency's CPAC representative. They gave me the paperwork and sample memo of how to request for LWOP through my agencies. Have you talked to your CPAC rep?

Both times I went on LWOP, I informed my supervisors nearly a year in advance (knowing that my husband would be getting PCS orders). This allowed my supervisor to route up through the chain for approval. So when I did submit my written request, I had no hurdles.

The first time I went on LWOP, I was authorized 6 months. When I got close to my 6 month mark, I emailed back to my CPAC rep and old supervisor, and requested additional time. They authorized me another 3 months and told me that would be my final extension. Luckily, I had been aggressively job hunting, and was able to start a new job right when my time expired.

The second time I went on LWOP, I was only granted 3 months at first. My supervisor let me know that if I required more time, to email her. Fortunately, I knew where we were going, so I had actually been applying to jobs at the gaining installation almost a year prior to my hubby's report date. It worked out great because I got hired on almost immediately when we arrived; I was hired for a job I had applied for 4 months prior before we actually PCS'd. So I required no further extensions.

That has been my experience. I was lucky in that my CPAC reps and supervisors were very helpful. I hope you can get this all figured out.