For best results, all forms mentioned below must be printed out, filled out and signed in ink, and mailed directly to OPM at the following address:
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Attn: Federal Employee Retirement System
Post Office Box 45
Boyers, PA 16017-0045
In order to send directly to OPM, you must wait 30 days after your last day at GSA. However, because part of the process requires you to mail some forms to your financial institution and wait for them to send them back, you can start the process about 15 days after your last day.
Here is the step-by-step process:
Page 1 should be self-explanatory, but just in case, here is what I entered for the items that might be ambiguous:
- Department or Agency: General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service/18F
- Title of Position: Innovation Specialist [c]
- Indicate whether retirement deductions were withheld from your salary: Withheld
- Have you paid deposit or redeposit...: Not Paid
No
- Pay ALL to my Thrift Savings Plan Account
-
Pay ALL by check made payable to my IRA or Eligible Employer Plan Name of Financial Institution of Employer Plan: Vanguard
-
This rollover is to a Roth IRA
Mail the check:
- to the above institution or plan
Just my wet signature and date
My wife signed this page, then took it to her office and had 2 colleagues sign it as witnesses
I called Vanguard to find out where I needed to send this form, and they said to send it to the address below, along with instructions.
Vanguard Group
P.O. Box 1110
Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110
Here is the letter I sent:
Letter of Instructions for Vanguard pertaining to form SF3106 for rolling over the refund of
retirement deductions to Moncef Belyamani’s Roth IRA account (my account number)
To Whom It May Concern,
Please fill out the top portion of the form labeled “Certification by Financial Institution
or Eligible Employer Plan”, and please send the original signed form with wet signature back
to me at the following address:
Moncef Belyamani
my address
Thank you,
Moncef Belyamani
In retrospect, I should have included more details because I got an email (or a call?) from Vanguard asking for more details. The person I spoke to wasn't familiar with SF 3106 and I had to explain that I was expecting $X amount to be transferred to my Roth IRA account from OPM. They asked if there was an account number the money was coming from and I explained that there wasn't.
By the way, the amount you should expect to receive is listed on your last paycheck in Employee Express at the top under Cumulative Retirement Agency.
Just fill out Part I (1-11) and include it with SF 3106 when you send it to OPM
YMMV, but I mailed everything on January 21 or a few days later, and I got an email from Vanguard about the transfer on February 26.
Recent timing info, in case it's helpful for anyone: I mailed my paperwork to FERS in February 2022, certified mail, and the USPS tracking page indicated that it arrived on 2/15/22. I had heard that processing can take up to six months. In July 2022, I received a paper letter that said that as of 7/15/22, FERS had received my request and was processing it. Schwab notified me (I think by email? maybe a letter) that they processed it on 7/29/22, and TSP notified me by email on 8/9/22 that they processed it. Thank you Moncef for this guide!