Applying for FMLA Leave in Washington State: Notice and Forms

The Family and Medical Leave Act is federal law, so there is no Washington-specific FMLA form and no state office that takes the application. The request runs through the employer’s own leave process. This article covers the eligibility test, the notice deadlines, the certification and designation forms that move between the employee, the health care provider, and the employer, and how Washington’s separate leave laws overlap with the federal entitlement. It sits alongside the wider survey of Washington labor laws.

Who is eligible for FMLA leave in Washington

Eligibility turns on three facts about the job, all of them measured at the moment leave is set to begin. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #28, revised March 2025, an employee qualifies after working for a covered employer for at least 12 months, logging at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12 months before the leave starts, and working at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

The employer has to be covered, too. Private-sector employers are covered when they employ 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year. Public agencies, including state and local government employers in Washington, are covered regardless of size, as are public and private elementary and secondary schools and school boards. An employee of a ten-person private shop in Spokane is not eligible; an employee of a ten-person school district office is.

The 12 months of employment do not have to be consecutive. Time away for military service covered by USERRA counts toward both the months and the hours of service.

Leave is available for the birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, for the employee’s own serious health condition, to care for a child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition, and for reasons tied to a family member’s military service. 29 U.S.C. § 2612 sets the entitlement at 12 workweeks in a 12-month period, or 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period for military caregiver leave.

How much notice the employer gets

Notice timing is where most FMLA requests go wrong. Under 29 CFR § 825.302(a), an employee must give the employer at least 30 days advance notice when the need for leave is foreseeable, such as an expected birth, a planned adoption or foster placement, or scheduled medical treatment.

When 30 days notice is not practicable, notice must be given as soon as practicable. The regulation defines that phrase to mean as soon as both possible and practical given the facts. Where an employee learns of the need for leave less than 30 days out, the same regulation treats the same day or the next business day as the ordinary expectation.

The request does not have to say “FMLA.” An employee seeking leave for the first time for a qualifying reason need not mention the statute at all, only give enough information that the employer becomes aware the absence may be covered. That changes on repeat requests: once the employer has already provided FMLA leave for a reason, later requests for the same reason must specifically reference it.

The forms in an FMLA request

The Department of Labor publishes optional-use forms on its FMLA forms page. Employers are free to use their own versions as long as those versions collect the same basic information, so a Washington employee may see a company packet rather than the federal PDFs.

Two categories exist. Certification forms go from the employee to a health care provider and back to the employer. Notice forms go from the employer to the employee.

1. Notify the employer

   Tell the supervisor or HR that time off is needed and roughly when and for how long. Follow the employer’s normal procedure for requesting leave. Verbal notice is enough under the regulation, though written notice creates a record of the date.

2. Receive the eligibility and rights notice

   The employer responds with form WH-381, which states whether the employee is eligible and lists the obligations attached to the leave, including any requirement to substitute paid leave.

3. Have the certification completed

   For a serious health condition, the employer may request form WH-380-E for the employee’s own condition or WH-380-F for a family member’s. Military family leave uses forms WH-384 and WH-385. The employer must accept any complete and sufficient certification, including one written on the provider’s letterhead.

4. Return the certification on time

   The employer must allow at least 15 calendar days to return the completed certification. More time is required when the health care provider cannot complete it within that window despite the employee’s diligent effort.

5. Receive the designation notice

   Form WH-382 tells the employee whether the leave is approved as FMLA leave and how much of the 12-week entitlement it consumes. The same form is used to say a certification is incomplete and to request the missing information.

Completed certifications go to the employer, not to the Department of Labor. The agency’s forms page is explicit on this point, and a certification mailed to the Wage and Hour Division does nothing to preserve the leave request.

How the request moves through the employer

Once notice is given, the employer carries most of the procedural burden. It decides eligibility, issues the notices, evaluates the certification, and designates the leave. The employee’s obligations are narrow: give timely notice, respond to reasonable questions about whether the absence is FMLA-qualifying, and return the certification within the window described in Fact Sheet #28.

FMLA leave itself is unpaid. Employees may use employer-provided paid leave at the same time when the reason fits the employer’s paid leave policy, and an employer may require that substitution. That is why many Washington employees on FMLA leave are drawing vacation, PTO, or the accrued time described in Washington sick leave law for part or all of the absence.

Leave can be taken all at once, intermittently, or on a reduced schedule when medically necessary. Bonding leave after a birth or placement is the exception: intermittent bonding leave requires the employer’s agreement. For planned treatment, the regulation requires the employee to make a reasonable effort to schedule it without unduly disrupting operations, subject to the provider’s approval.

At the end of the leave, the employee returns to the same job or an equivalent one with the same pay, benefits, and conditions. Group health coverage continues throughout the leave on the same terms as if the employee had kept working.

Washington leave laws that run alongside FMLA

Federal FMLA is a floor, not a ceiling. Washington has its own leave statutes, and an employee can be covered by several at once.

The Washington Family Care Act, at RCW 49.12.270, lets an employee use any earned paid leave the employer already offers to care for a qualifying family member with a health condition. The Department of Labor & Industries explains that the choice of which paid leave to use belongs to the employee: sick leave, vacation, PTO, or a personal holiday. The Family Care Act does not cover an employee’s own medical condition, and it creates no separate bank of leave.

Paid Family and Medical Leave is a distinct state insurance program under RCW Title 50A, administered by the Employment Security Department. It pays wage-replacement benefits; FMLA provides job protection without pay. Filing an FMLA request with an employer does not file a Paid Family and Medical Leave claim, and the two run on separate applications and separate timelines.

When leave is denied or mishandled

An employer cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny an FMLA right, and cannot retaliate for requesting or using leave. The Department of Labor identifies write-ups for FMLA absences, attendance points assessed for protected time, denial of a promotion because of leave use, and withheld bonuses already earned as examples of interference. This is one of the recognized limits on at-will employment in Washington: an at-will employer still cannot fire someone for exercising a statutory leave right. Two enforcement paths exist for most private-sector employees in Washington. The Wage and Hour Division accepts complaints, and an employee may instead file a private lawsuit against the employer in court. State employees face limits on direct suits over leave for their own serious health conditions. Most federal employees fall under the Office of Personnel Management rather than the Wage and Hour Division. Nothing in the FMLA displaces state protections. An employee whose FMLA claim fails on the 1,250-hour test or the 50-employee threshold may still have rights under Washington’s paid sick leave law, the Family Care Act, or the state Paid Family and Medical Leave program.