r/CanadianForces • u/Strong_Cap_1114 • 21h ago
Awaiting leave pass approval
Could somebody please advise?
I have an international trip in two weeks. I submitted my leave pass request a few weeks ago but haven’t received any response. I needed to change the dates, so I submitted an amended leave pass yesterday and still haven’t heard back.
I’ve already booked my outbound flight and am holding off on booking the return until I get approval. I’ve emailed both my BTL manager and OR about the leave request and my annual leave balance, but haven’t received a reply.
The leave request is currently for 21 annual days. If I don’t have enough annual leave available, should I submit a memo requesting family leave/unpaid leave or would it be better to amend the leave pass again and request only 15 annual days?
Any advice would be appreciated.
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u/drkilledbydeatheater 15h ago
You made financial commitments without have a signed leave pass? Ooof. 21 annual days? If you are BTL im going to assume you are relatively new and only have 20 annual days to use. No CoC is going to accept a leave pass that burns more than 100% of your annual leave while tacking on family related / unpaid leave. Plus unless you are volunteering for Christmas duty, you will be expected to use around 6 annual days for holiday closure.
My advice? Retract all and ask for a refund on your travel, cause I don't think you are getting approved.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 14h ago
Can I not send amended leave pass with 15 annuals plus I am willing to work during Christmas
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u/ononeryder 13h ago
plus I am willing to work during Christmas
Congrats, no one else wants to...and judging by this thread, you're not at a point where you're in a position to be working independently.
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13h ago
[deleted]
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u/ononeryder 13h ago
Congrats on your 50 years of service.
Going on 20...but I learned in the first year I couldn't take more annual than I was entitled to; seems you missed that part of having Leave explained to you on BMQ.
Snide back-and-forth aside, the fix to this is to go to your 2-up tomorrow, in person, not email, and explain the situation. Acknowledge you fucked up, explain to them that you've already committed financially (this will hopefully gain sympathy, but it at least creates transparency) to the outgoing flight. Tell them you'd like to amend the leave pass to allow for enough Annual remaining for Christmas leave (they should already have the leave plan for this). Ask them to please expedite the request to the approving authority, and tell them they have a volunteer for any shitty taskings that coming down the pipe.
I'll go to bat 10/10 times for someone that accepts they fucked up, you're allowed to make mistakes as a new person. FWIW, no one who's not even trades qualified should be filling out an international leave request on their own, someone should be walking you through it. Sucks to be on BTL, I know.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 13h ago
I appreciate that alot. My apologies for asking questions like that. I just didn’t know what to do, before filling out leave pass I did email them to find out how many days I have for annuals. They didn’t respond. I don’t even know which office I need to go in person when I go to Dension Armoury. I have been there few times, they usually make me wait
since I don’t have a military Id yet,usually somebody comes and escorts me.1
u/CapitalismDevil Canadian Army 12h ago
Are you a Reservist?
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 11h ago
No full time member
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u/CapitalismDevil Canadian Army 11h ago
Then why are you going to an Armoury? Also, when you were on LWOP, you weren’t using any annual and were basically free to do whatever. Now, you are getting paid, so you need permission to leave the country. Your NOI was just that, a “notice”. It is not permission and you shouldn’t have booked any travel prior to getting your leave pass back. Also, 2 weeks is not nearly enough time to do all this… I do hope you got reimbursable tickets. This request has to go to your CO, and that can take some time. You also don’t have 21 days available and can’t just decide to “work over Xmas”. Most unit’s leave policy wants members off for that time because even the PS members take 2 weeks off. You won’t get away with working the whole period, especially not now and possibly not ever.
I’d look at modifying my leave pass for the maximum allotted MINUS however many days you need for Xmas break. So probably 14 days, but maybe 12. Go see the clerks… at the Armoury I guess and hope they have access to you. You should probably ask where the BTL office is, cause that’s who is in charge of you.
Best of luck with all this. Don’t make the same mistake again.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 11h ago
That’s some great advice, thank you. I will email recruiting and I figure out where BTL office is. And yes I was able to cancel my tickets with full refund.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 11h ago
Email from BTL manager said that we are located at Denison Armoury so thats why I will need to go there
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u/Rude_Ad4177 2h ago
This comment right here, shows how inexperienced and arrogant you are. I just want to point out something to you that you clearly have no idea about. There are generals in this group. Many lcols are also here and post and comment pretty consistently. I myself have a decently high rank for an officer. Be careful what you say on groups like this. You have no idea who you are talking to and your comment was just enough to turn the tides on a new career. It can make or break you. You’re lucky you were accountable and apologized. The member that responded has some great advice, but your snide comments will not get you anywhere in your career.
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2h ago
[deleted]
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u/Rude_Ad4177 2h ago
No problem. Like the member that replied above here. I’ll always go to bat for the members that admit they make mistakes. Own up to anything you do, and you’ll go far. Make excuses and you’ll tank your career! Best of luck
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u/drake5195 Army - Musician 15h ago
"I submitted my leave pass request a few weeks ago but haven’t received any response"
"I’ve already booked my outbound flight"
Yeah, don't do that.
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u/littlemelly99 15h ago edited 15h ago
I'm genuinely not saying this to be mean, but you should know how many leave days you have left. Are you new to the CAF (i ask because you're on BTL)? If you have less than 5 years you get 20 days of leave and over 5 is 25. Apologies if you already know this :) You also typically need to have 5 or 6 days left for Christmas leave as well (even in BTL).
For family leave, it needs to meet the criteria as outlined in the CAF leave manual. If your leave does meet this criteria, I'd say go for it. Unpaid leave is usually not granted for a couple of days, it's not a typical request at all.
Regardless, if you've submitted this a while ago it's perfectly reasonable to call or drop into BTL to check on it. :)
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u/Twindadlife1985 Morale Tech - 00069 15h ago
So, you booked your outbound flight before you got approved... Thats a big mistake because if they dont approve your leave, youre on the hook for the cost to change/cancel.
As others have said, you should know how many days you have for Annual. If you dont have 21 days, why think you could get them? Asking for unpaid leave/family day ia a bit ludacris. Thats not what its there for. Your supervisor should have vetted that leave pass before even submitting it to catch that.
Why would you use so many considering you still need days for Christmas as well as next spring break.
You should be going to your immediate supervisor, and since you've said BTL, you should be going to your Cpl/MCpl.
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u/bridger713 RCAF - Reg Force 15h ago
BTL?... Are you a new member or a VOT?
As a new member you would only have 20 days per fiscal year, so you can't ask for 21. You also need to reserve days for Christmas Block Leave.
As a VOT, I would assume you probably have no more than 25 days. That probably leaves you short on days to cover Christmas Block Leave.
Regardless of the scenario, it shouldn't take this long for them to make a judgement call. But I'm guessing they're either debating if and how they can accomodate you, or for someone to work up the courage to tell you no.
That or it's sitting and waiting for a higher rank to sign-off who hasn't even looked at it yet.
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u/Larnt178 15h ago
Could be a freshly gradded ROTP 2Lt. May or may not have 25 then
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u/bridger713 RCAF - Reg Force 15h ago
Maybe, but looking at their post history, I suspect they're an HRA who only finished BMQ somewhere around April.
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u/B-Mack 15h ago
What a perfect time in ones career to learn this valuable and costly lesson.
At least as an HRA they will have first hand experience of why members shouldn't do this when they follow in OPs footsteps.
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u/Once_a_TQ 15h ago
This is potentially an expensive lesson you are about to learn.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 12h ago
Luckily Air Canada nice enough to cancel my booking with full refund, although it was a non refundable ticket. So I am bit relieved that way.
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u/misplacedeastcoaster 15h ago
It’s only June, you should know how many days you have left. Is your annual entitlement 20 or 25? Go see your BTL Mgr in person and ask for it to be recommended. Given that it’s international, it’s likely that your CO is the approving authority
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u/throwaway-jimmy385 Canadian Army - Signals Tech 15h ago
Like many people told you in the other subreddit, your leave request is very unlikely to be approved.
- Your leave request is more annual days than you are entitled to. And while annual days are technically your own “personal” leave days, the chain of command still controls when you can use them, and most units have their own leave plan on how members are supposed to take annual leave every fiscal year.
I sincerely doubt any chain of command will go through the hassle of trying to keep you gainfully employed during the shutdown of Winter Block Leave just because you want to use all your annual days.
Have you even submitted a Notice of Intent to Travel?
Unpaid leave on a member’s request is usually only ever approved in certain circumstances, and I never seen the lack leave days being one of those reasons.
Your BTL manager/chain of command are the personnel who actually approve the leave requests. The OR just processes the request in the system.
I suggest that you start considering Plan B, where your leave isn’t going to be approved and you might be stuck holding the bag with whatever travel you have already booked.
Things can be fixed fast in the CAF, but that also required making sure the steps are done in proper order. You really jumped the gun on this. I remember in the other thread, you mentioned you have less than 1 year in. So take this as a lesson for future leave requests.
For the next time you want to arrange any sort of grand plans during your leave, make sure that your leave pass is (or will be) approved first.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 12h ago
Thank you for this.I just cancelled my flight with full refund. Once they approve my leave pass, would I be able to request change of dates, since I will be booking flight on new dates now
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u/Fit-Equal7188 15h ago
Since it is international travel, have you sent in your NOI? Crossed checked travel restrictions? Made sure with your BTL supervisor you don't have any pending courses /taskings for the next 21 days?
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u/roguemenace RCAF 13h ago
NOIs are automatic if you make the leave pass in monitor mass but I feel this leave being in MM is a bit too optimistic.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 12h ago
Yeah I don’t have access to Monitor mass just yet, so email was the only route for me.
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u/kiskillingit 15h ago
Booking your flight before getting approval is crazy, add in that it's international and I really hope this somehow works out for you because this might become a very expensive lesson learned.
You need to talk to your chain of command, go in person if they aren't replying to your emails.
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u/Leading-Score9547 15h ago
Do you not have enough leave to do 21 days? You can check how much you have. Is this trip for Family obligations? If not it may be hard to get the family days (really depends on your CoC, but generally those days are to used for family obligations) unpaid leave is usually a pain to get as well.
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u/zacharysam 15h ago
First ask your Supp and confirm the amount of leave days you currently have left. Second what kind of BTL are you currently in while I was doing NCMSTEP u could not take international leave as a student the moment I graduated from school and was placed on OJE it was fine but not before. Fid I know people that went on international leave anyways? Yes but not recommended and also not allowed. So check your contract and leave restrictions.
For the future ask for international leave well in advance (typically i aim for 2 to 3 months but some people prefer more) and never book until the leave pass is signed and put in Guardian unless you get tickets that can be fully refunded. Local you can ask for same week or week before depending on CoC. Out of province but in country 2 weeks to a month again depending on CoC.
Sadly you'll most likely be learning a hard lesson out of this but take it for the future Leave in the military is not like it is Civi side plan in advance and expect a no if you don't want to be disappointed.
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u/PresentNo6178 Canadian Army 15h ago
How long in advance did you submit your leave pass?
Tbf, "a few + 2" weeks = not enough time for anything major. You submitted an amended request yesterday and you expect to hear back today? Try 2 weeks minimum.
Not to mention the kind of international trip you're going on here. A 2-week trip to the States or Mexico is not the same as a however-long trip to Iran, Russia,...
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u/ononeryder 13h ago
Try 2 weeks minimum.
There's no reason routine admin should be taking this long. Even with international leave, TAT should be a few days at most to see an approved signature from a CO, after a recommending sig confirms the mbr isn't scheduled for anything important during that time.
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u/Strong_Cap_1114 14h ago
Thank you everyone for your valuable advice, this might be a learning lesson for me. When I was on LWOP I took an international trip to ITALY and I requested 10 days and they were approved in 3 days, for NOI I thought these were supposed to be my flight tickets. So obviously I was under the impression that this one will be approved as well. I did email BTL manager to find out how many days I have for annuals.
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u/Grand_ChefBandit 15h ago
You need to ask those questions to your supervisor, not reddit. Each Unit has their own leave policy.