§5729 Transportation expenses; prior return of family

Summary

Under rules made under section 5738, an agency must pay from its budget, no more than once before the employee returns to the United States, the cost of moving the employee’s immediate family and shipping household goods and personal effects from a post outside the continental United States to the employee’s actual home. Payment is allowed when the employee becomes eligible or when the public interest requires the family’s return for urgent humanitarian or compassionate reasons, like serious illness, death, or other compelling events beyond the employee’s control. If the employee already paid those transportation costs (not for a public-interest reason) and later becomes eligible, the agency must reimburse them from its budget. These rules do not apply to money for the U.S. Foreign Service.