§ 302-1.12 - Overseas assignment and return.

(a) Transferees. Employees transferred to, from, and between official stations outside the continental United States are eligible for many of the benefits provided by this chapter, and employees transferred to such stations are eligible for return transportation under the conditions and limitations contained in paragraphs (c) through (g) of this section. Specific eligibility provisions and applicable limitations are contained in the parts of this chapter relating to the benefits provided.

(b) New appointees—(1) Residence at time of appointment. A new appointee to a position outside the continental United States is eligible for certain travel and transportation benefits under this chapter if his/her residence at the time of appointment is in an area other than the area in which his/her official station is located. Under this rule “area” means a foreign country, the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or a United States territory or possession.

(2) Allowable expenses. Allowances and the parts of this chapter which apply are as follows:

(i) Travel and per diem for appointees as set forth in § 302-2.1;

(ii) Travel for the appointee's immediate family, but not per diem, as set forth in § 302-2.2;

(iii) Mileage to the extent travel is performed by privately owned automobile as set forth in § 302-2.3;

(iv) Transportation and temporary storage of household goods as set forth in part 302-8;

(v) Nontemporary storage of household goods as set forth in § 302-9.2;

(vi) Transportation of mobile homes in limited circumstances as set forth in part 302-7; and

(vii) Transportation of an employee's personal automobile as set forth in part 302-10.

(3) Expenses not allowable. Items of expense not listed in paragraph (b)(2) of this section which are authorized for reimbursement under this chapter in the case of transfers (e.g., per diem for family, cost of house-hunting trip, subsistence while occupying temporary quarters, miscellaneous expense allowance, residence sale and purchase expenses, and lease-breaking expenses) may not be authorized for appointees eligible under this section.

(4) Alternate origin or destination. Travel and transportation benefits authorized are from the employee's residence at time of appointment to his/her official station. If alternate origins or destinations are involved, the cost which will be paid by the Government may not exceed the cost that would have been incurred for the travel or transportation in question between the residence and the official station.

(5) Advance of funds. An advance of funds for expenses allowable under paragraph (b)(2) of this section may be made to appointees under the procedures prescribed in § 302-1.14(a) and the part of this chapter governing the allowance being considered.

(c) Actual place of residence designation—(1) Designation by employee. When an employee is selected for transfer or appointment to a post of duty outside the continental United States, the place of actual residence shall be determined at the time of selection and designated in the written agreement prescribed in § 302-1.5(b) to remain in the Government service for a minimum period of time prescribed by the agency head pursuant to law. An employee hired locally at a location outside the continental United States who claims residence at another location in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or a United States territory or possession at time of appointment, shall designate in writing the claimed place of actual residence for the consideration of agency officials.

(2) Determination by agency official. Determination of the place of actual residence shall be made by an authorized agency official on the basis of all the facts in the record. When there is doubt as to the place of actual residence, the employee is responsible for supplying any further information necessary to support designation of the claimed place of actual residence.

(3) Guidance in determination of residence. While it is not feasible to establish rigid standards for what constitutes a place of residence, the concept of residence represented in an existing statutory provision (8 U.S.C. 1101(33)) may be used as general guidance. This concept views residence as the place of general abode, meaning the principal, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to intent. Determination of the place of actual residence is primarily an administrative responsibility and the place constituting the actual residence must be determined upon the factual circumstances in each case. Examples of factors which shall be considered, whenever applicable, by agency officials charged with this responsibility are:

(i) The place of actual residence of a dependent student generally is presumed to be the same as that of the parents and, except in rare instances, this situation would not be changed by the student attending college in another place.

(ii) The place at which the employee physically resided at time of selection for appointment or transfer frequently constitutes the place of actual residence and shall be so regarded in the absence of circumstances reasonably indicating that another location may be designated as the place of actual residence.

(iii) Designation of a place of actual residence in an official document signed by the employee earlier in Government employment shall be regarded as originally intended to be a continuing designation, and the burden is upon the employee to establish clearly that the earlier designation was in error or that later circumstances entitle a different designation to be made. After an employee has been transferred or appointed to a post of duty outside the continental United States, the location of the place of actual residence incorporated in the official records of such employment shall be changed only to correct an error in the designation of residence.

(iv) Presence in the individual's work history of a representative amount of full-time employment at or in the immediate geographic area of the location designated as place of actual residence is a significant factor, but lack of such history does not preclude the designation of the location as place of actual residence.

(v) The chronological record of individual or family association with a locality is usually significant only in connection with an analysis of other circumstances explaining the nature of such association. Frequent or extended visits to a locality must be evaluated in relation to the purpose of the visits and sometimes in relation to the nature of the area itself. For example, vacation visits to a resort area, without the added support of other factors, should not be regarded as adequate to establish a place of actual residence.

(vi) Recognition and exercise by the employee of the privileges and duties of citizenship in a particular jurisdiction, such as voting and payment of taxes on income and personal property are factors for consideration, but agency application of standards about place of residence should not be such as to discourage employees from property ownership or participation in community affairs at a nonforeign location outside the continental United States.

(d) Return for separation. When an employee is eligible for return travel and transportation to his/her place of actual residence upon separation after completion of the period of service specified in an agreement executed under § 302-1.5(b) or is separated for reasons beyond his/her control and acceptable to the agency concerned, he/she may receive travel and transportation to an alternate location, provided the cost to the Government shall not exceed the cost of travel and transportation to his/her residence at the time he/she was assigned to an overseas station. However, under decisions of the Comptroller General, ordinarily, an employee is entitled to travel and transportation expenses upon separation only to the country of actual residence at the time of assignment to such duty.

(e) Prior return of immediate family—(1) When employee is eligible for return transportation. When an employee has become eligible for return transportation by satisfactorily completing an agreed period of service at a post of duty outside the continental United States, the Government shall pay one-way transportation expenses for returning the employee's immediate family and household goods before the employee's return to his/her place of actual residence in the United States.

(2) Return for compassionate reasons. One-way transportation expenses for the return of the employee's immediate family and his/her household goods also may be paid without regard to the employee's completion of an agreed period of service provided it has been determined under regulations prescribed by the head of the agency concerned that the public interest requires the return of the immediate family for compelling personal reasons of a humanitarian or compassionate nature, which may involve physical or mental health, death of a member of the immediate family, or obligations imposed by authority or circumstances over which the individual has no control.

(3) Limited to one return trip. Expenses allowed as provided in paragraphs (e) (1) and (2) of this section shall be paid by the Government not more than one time during each agreed period of service and are subject to chapter 301 of this title.

(4) Part of household goods retained overseas. In connection with the prior return of his/her family, the employee may elect to retain a portion of the household goods with him/her at the post of duty and ship the remainder to his/her place of actual residence. In such an instance, the Government will pay for shipment of both parts of the household goods, provided the aggregate weight of both shipments does not exceed the applicable weight limits.

(5) Alternate destination. If the employee's immediate family and household goods are returned to a location in the United States other than the place of actual residence therein, the allowable expenses shall not exceed those allowable for return over a usually traveled route between the post of duty and the place of actual residence.

(6) Prior return at employee's expense—reimbursement. There may be circumstances in which an employee elects to return his/her immediate family and the household goods or any part thereof at his/her own expense to any of the United States when he/she is not eligible for such transportation under this paragraph. In such an instance, and after the employee becomes eligible for transportation at Government expense, he/she may be reimbursed for the proper expenses which he/she had previously paid. He/She will be reimbursed in accordance with the applicable provisions of this paragraph only for expenses which are supported by receipts or other appropriate documentation furnished to the Government under regulations prescribed by the head of the agency concerned.

(f) Return of former spouse and dependents. Paragraph (e) of this section also applies to the spouse and dependents of an employee who have traveled to the employee's overseas post of duty as dependents (as provided in § 302-1.4(f)) at Government expense, even if, because of divorce or annulment, such individuals will have ceased to be dependents as of the date the employee becomes eligible for return travel. Travel of such former dependents is authorized by the employee's next entitlement to return travel but not beyond the end of the employee's current agreed tour of duty.

(g) Return of family member over 21. If a member of the immediate family, as defined in § 302-1.4(f), reaches his/her twenty-first birthday while the employee is assigned to duty overseas, that person may be returned to the United States (or foreign location at which the actual residence is located) at Government expense, provided his/her last travel overseas was at Government expense as a member of the employee's immediate family. Return of that person is authorized by the employee's next entitlement to travel to the United States (or foreign location at which the actual residence is located) but not beyond the end of the employee's current agreed tour of duty.