Q. I understand that you have to have five years of “actual civilian service” to be vested under FERS. If I was deployed (and therefore placed on LWOP-US), does that stop the clock for vesting? If I have been employed as a GS for five years, but was deployed for a year in the middle, am I or am I not vested?
A. All you have to have is five years of actual FERS service to be vested in the retirement system. A break between two periods of actual service doesn’t affect that.
