Can you leave the army if you don’t like it?

After the first few months you are ‘locked in’ to the army for at least four years, sometimes longer. Find out here when you can and can’t leave – this is the only place online that spells out the rules.

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If you’re under 18 when you join up then you can hand in your notice any time in the first six months or any time before your 18th birthday – whichever is later.

Once you’ve handed in your notice, you still have to wait before you can go home – how long depends on how long ago you joined up. Read on to find out.

First six weeks

Although you have no legal right to leave in the first six weeks (even if you’re still under 18), the army has said that any recruit at the Army Foundation College will be allowed to leave in this time if they want to. This is what Ofsted has been told by the army about the first six weeks:

If you ask to leave in the first six weeks, you may be told that you can’t when in fact you can. If this happens to you, get in touch and we can help.

(If you want to check the Ofsted quote above, you can do that here – the same info is also here.)

After the first six weeks

After the first six weeks, your formal ‘discharge window’ opens when you have a legal right to leave, called Discharge As Of Right or DAOR.

This discharge window closes after you’ve been in the army for six months or on your 18th birthday – whichever is later.

If you want to DAOR, it isn’t enough to tell a corporal – you need to hand your notice on paper, signed, to the Commanding Officer.

You then have a wait, usually of two weeks, though it can be longer if you’ve already been in the army for six months.

Important: If you want to leave, you MUST hand in your notice during the first six months or by the day before your 18th birthday, whichever is later – otherwise you’ll be locked into the army with no legal right to leave at all for the next FOUR YEARS. There are no exceptions. And after you’ve left you’re still on the reserve list, which means the army can still call you up to train or fight at any time for the next SIX YEARS.

Also check out:

• What’s the Army Foundation College like?
• What’s British army training like?
• How hard is army training?

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If you are 18 or over and join the army for the FIRST time, then:

• You can leave in the first THREE MONTHS (but NOT in the first six weeks).
• After the first three months you have no right to leave until you have served for FOUR YEARS. And after you’ve left, the army can still call you up to train or fight at any time for the next SIX YEARS.

Important: If you join aged over 18 and it’s not your first time in the army then you have no right to DAOR and so no right to leave at all for FOUR years from the day you re-join.

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If you leave when you don’t have a right to leave, then you’re ‘AWOL’ – Absent Without Leave – which is a military offence.

If you’re caught then you can be sent to military court (a court martial) and get time in the military prison in Colchester for up to two years (or more if you leave when you’re being sent to war).

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You used to be able to pay to get out of the army (called ‘buying out’) but not any more.

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If you’re already in the army and want to leave, go to ‘leaving the army‘ to work through your options.

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Share this page with them now to make sure they know these rules before they sign up.

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How do I know this is right? Can I check the facts?

The rules for leaving aren’t on the army website – they are only shown to recruits on the day they enlist.

But we have a copy of the army’s own document and the relevant section on the right to leave in the first few months is shown below.

(If you want to check that the source is genuine, you can go straight to the full document here.)