Staying vs. Leaving eligible employment while waiting for buyback
Government attorney here. In March 2026, I reached my 120 months of PSLF-eligible employment, and had 108 certified payments. I submitted a buyback request for the 12 payments I need, which are missing due to the SAVE forbearance. (Side note: I got off the SAVE forbearance last summer when I switched back to IBR and started making payments again.) Of course, my buyback is still pending. I have since made two more payments and am still at the eligible employer, so I submitted another ECF since I have not yet received my buyback offer. That ECF has been processed and I am now sitting at 110 payments, with 122 months of eligible service.
I am confident that the SAVE months are eligible for buyback and that I have done everything correctly, but much less confident that the U.S. Department of Education won't mess something up. I am getting to the point where my PSLF job is unbearable due to a toxic work environment and I have like 8-9 private firms who have asked me to come work for them. I am a very risk-averse person, particularly financially, but I'm at my wits end and am ready to move on with my life (probably not unlike many of you). My main concern is that I'll leave my current employer, buyback won't be approved, and I'll be stuck with a huge amount of debt with 10 months or less until forgiveness if I had kept working here. One of the prospective private firms, the one I really want to go with for lots of reasons including the fact that they want to bring me on as a partner, has told me that, in the event that the Department of Education does not approve my buyback and I need to do some PSLF-eligible employment, they have no problem with me taking on a second job, or even scaling back on the firm's work to take on the second job, for however many months I need to fulfill the remainder of the 120 months. In fact, they told me they have an attorney there now that works both for them and as a patent attorney for the federal government.
I'm not wrong in thinking that this is a hugely positive factor and really alleviates the risk of me leaving now and going somewhere else, correct?
I'm thinking about taking a few months of FMLA to give myself a break after dealing with some serious medical issues with one of my children, and I know the months during FMLA will also count, so by the time I leave, it would likely put the remaining months I need (assuming no buyback offer at that point) at around 6 months. In my mind, this is a viable option to be able to leave my current employer, go somewhere else and be happier and paid MUCH better, but to also have a back-up plan to still be able to address loan forgiveness if buyback falls through, but am I crazy?