Overseas Tour Extension Incentive Program (OTEIP)

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The Overseas Tour Extension Incentive Program (OTEIP) rewards you for staying overseas longer. Extend your overseas tour 12 months or more at an eligible location, and you pick one incentive.

Three things to know first.

• Every Marine qualifies, any MOS, any rank. No job specialty list applies.
• You pick your incentive when you use it, not when you request the extension.
• Nobody takes back what you already received, even if you leave the program early.

The program rules on this page come from MARADMIN 450/26MARADMIN 450/26, released 25 September 2026. DoD 7000.14-R Volume 7ADoD 7000.14-R Volume 7A Chapter 14 and Title 37 U.S.C. section 352Title 37 U.S.C. section 352 set the limits the Marine Corps works inside.

Pick One of Three Incentives

Option 1. $2,000

• Paid in 12 equal payments of $166.66 per month.
• Taxable, unless an exemption applies, such as the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion (CZTE).
• The total is $2,000 whether you extend 12 months or longer.

Option 2. 30 Days of Free Leave

• Special Rest and Recuperative (SR&R) leave. It does not come out of your leave balance.
• Up to 30 days, taken in one stretch.
• No paid travel with this option.

Option 3. 15 Days of Free Leave Plus a Paid Trip Home

• Up to 15 days of SR&R leave.
• A round-trip flight at government expense to the nearest port of entry in the 48 contiguous States.
• Extend 13 months or more, and you get 5 more days, for 20 days total.
• Take the leave and the trip together. Use only one, and you lose the other.

The incentive covers you, not your family members.

Who Qualifies

You qualify when all of these are true.

1. You are entitled to basic pay.
2. You are assigned to an eligible OCONUS location.
3. You finished your first tour there, including any extensions already approved.
4. You sign an agreement to extend overseas for 12 months or more.

Two short extensions do not add up. Two 6-month extensions do not qualify, even though they total 12 months. The single extension has to be 12 months or more.

Where It Applies

Starting 1 November 2026, every OCONUS location qualifies except these two.

• The State of Hawaii.
• Every country in the Marine Corps Forces Europe area.

Approved before 1 November 2026? You keep the incentives offered when your OTEIP was approved. Ask your career counselor which locations qualify for an extension approved before 1 November 2026.

You Pick When You Use It

You choose your incentive when you are ready to use it, not when you request the extension.

Your choice becomes final the moment one of these happens.

• The first $166.66 payment hits your pay.
• You receive the travel line of accounting (LOA), the funding code for your flight.
• Your SR&R leave is credited.

Once your choice is final, you do not switch.

When You Use It

Use your incentive during the extension, never before it starts.

• The extension starts the day after your original Rotational Tour Date (RTD).
• The extension ends when you leave the location on Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders, when a new overseas extension starts, or when an In-Place Consecutive Overseas Tour (IPCOT) starts.
• Do not tie OTEIP leave or travel to PCS orders or to separation or retirement orders.

Missed your window? You still claim the $2,000 up to three years after the extension ends. This three-year claim is new and not retroactive. Incentives left unclaimed during an extension period before 25 September 2026 do not qualify.

How to Request the Extension

Enlisted Marines

1. See your career counselor.
2. Your career counselor submits the request in the Total Force Retention System (TFRS) to Manpower Management Enlisted Assignments (MMEA).
3. The approval states whether the extension qualifies for OTEIP, how many months, and your new RTD.

Officers

1. Write a request on an Administrative Action (AA) Form to your primary MOS monitor.
2. Get it endorsed by the first O-5 commander in your chain. Lieutenant colonels and colonels also need the first O-6 commander.
3. Manpower Management Officer Assignments (MMOA) answers with a message stating whether the extension qualifies for OTEIP, how many months, and your new RTD.

Then Take the Approval to IPAC

Bring your approval message to your Installation Personnel Administration Center (IPAC). They update your RTD. This step is on you.

Taking the Paid Trip

Picked Option 3? Request your funding at least 30 days before you want to fly.

1. Email the Headquarters Marine Corps office MMIB-3 at smb_manpower_mmib_3@usmc.mil.
2. Send an AA Form, an endorsement from your O-5 commander or higher, your approved extension message, and a cost estimate from the Commercial Travel Office (CTO) or Distribution Management Office (DMO) for the flight to the port of entry.
3. Going somewhere other than the port of entry? Add a CTO or DMO cost estimate for the alternate location.
4. Book the flight through the CTO or DMO where one is available.

SR&R Leave Rules

• Take it in one stretch. Do not split it.
• Take fewer days than you earned, and you lose the rest.
• Submit it in the Marine Online Leave and Liberty module. Attach your OTEIP approval.
• Got two OTEIP leave periods approved by mistake? Only one counts as SR&R. The rest is charged as regular leave.

If You Leave the Program Early

You leave the program if you become ineligible for more overseas duty during the extension.

You Caused It

• You lose whatever part of the incentive you have not used.
• You keep the payments and leave you already received.

The Marine Corps Caused It

• Your $166.66 payments continue, prorated, until the day you leave the location.
• You keep any SR&R leave or trip you already took.
• You lose the right to take SR&R leave or the trip.

What OTEIP Is Not

• Not IPCOT leave travel. IPCOT is a separate entitlement, and the two are not interchangeable.
• Not a family benefit. The incentive covers you only.
• Not Hardship Duty Pay for Location (HDP-L). HDP-L follows its own rules and does not change because you took OTEIP.

Check Your Pay

Picked Option 1? Check each Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) during the 12 payments.

1. Pull your LES from myPay each payday.
2. Confirm the $166.66 incentive payment for the month.
3. Confirm tax withholding matches your status. The payment is taxable unless an exemption such as CZTE applies.
4. Payment missing or wrong? Bring your approval message to your IPAC.

Common Questions

I extended 18 months. Do I get more money?

No. The financial incentive is $2,000 total. An extension of 13 months or more does add 5 days to Option 3, for 20 days of SR&R leave plus the trip.

I am in Hawaii. Do I qualify?

Not for an extension approved on or after 1 November 2026. Hawaii is excluded.

I am stationed in Europe. Do I qualify?

Not for an extension approved on or after 1 November 2026. The Marine Corps Forces Europe area is excluded.

Do I have to pick my incentive when I sign the extension?

No. You pick when you use it.

Am I allowed to take my SR&R leave before my extension starts?

No. The extension starts the day after your original RTD. Use the incentive once the extension starts.

My OTEIP was approved before this message. How do I change my incentive?

Request the change from MMIB-3 at smb_manpower_mmib_3@usmc.mil.

Where to Go for Help

• Extension request and eligibility. Your career counselor for enlisted Marines, your primary MOS monitor for officers.
• RTD update and pay problems. Your IPAC.
• Travel funding and incentive changes for earlier approvals. MMIB-3, smb_manpower_mmib_3@usmc.mil, 703-784-9236.
• DFAS Marine Corps Pay. 1-888-332-7411, DSN 312-571-9450 from overseas.

Where to Go Next on This Site

• R&R and SR&R Leave Programs covers how SR&R leave compares with other leave programs.
• Renewal Agreement Travel covers travel tied to consecutive overseas tours.
• Hardship Duty Pay covers HDP-L at many of the same locations.
• Combat Zone Tax Exclusion covers when the $2,000 is tax-free.

Related Roles

• Leaders coach Marines on the three options and the election timing before the extension request.
• Admin at the S-1 and IPAC update the RTD, file the approval in the Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), and process SR&R leave.