While the current federal leave year doesn’t end until January 11, the last date for scheduling "use or lose" annual leave in most cases is November 30. Given the length of time it can take to get a leave request approved, employees may need to put in requests soon if they otherwise would have an excess that couldn’t be carried to the next leave year. Generally, employees may carry over to the next leave year no more than 240 hours (30 days) of accrued annual leave; they must use annual leave in excess of that amount by the end of a leave year or they will forfeit it. An agency may consider restoring annual leave that was forfeited due to an "exigency of the public business" or sickness of the employee, but only if the leave was formally scheduled before the scheduling deadline.