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Title 22, Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-110

§3984 Service in United States and Abroad

Title 22 › CHAPTER 52 — FOREIGN SERVICE › SUBCHAPTER V — CLASSIFICATION OF POSITIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS › § 3984

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Career Foreign Service members must serve overseas and are expected to spend large parts of their careers abroad. The Secretary will make rules about U.S. assignments. No one may be assigned inside the United States for more than eight years in a row unless the Secretary approves extra time for special reasons. The Secretary should also try to give each U.S. citizen career member a U.S. assignment at least once every fifteen years (except those hired under section 3951). The Secretary may grant a Senior Foreign Service career member a sabbatical of up to eleven months for study or unpaid work that improves their skills and effectiveness. The Secretary will set the conditions for such sabbaticals, considering rules like 5 U.S.C. 3396(c).

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §3984

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Obligation to serve abroad; length of stay in United States
Career members of the Service shall be obligated to serve abroad and shall be expected to serve abroad for substantial portions of their careers. The Secretary shall establish by regulation limitations upon assignments of members of the Service within the United States. A member of the Service may not be assigned to duty within the United States for any period of continuous service exceeding eight years unless the Secretary approves an extension of such period for that member because of special circumstances.
(b)Intermittent duty within United States
Consistent with the needs of the Service, the Secretary shall seek to assign each career member of the Service who is a citizen of the United States (other than those employed in accordance with section 3951 of this title) to duty within the United States at least once during each period of fifteen years that the member is in the Service.
(c)Sabbaticals
The Secretary may grant a sabbatical to a career member of the Senior Foreign Service for not to exceed eleven months in order to permit the member to engage in study or uncompensated work experience which will contribute to the development and effectiveness of the member. A sabbatical may be granted under this subsection under conditions specified by the Secretary in light of the provisions of section 3396(c) of title 5, which apply to sabbaticals granted to members of the Senior Executive Service.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1994—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 103–236 inserted “(other than those employed in accordance with section 3951 of this title)” after “citizen of the United States”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 3984

Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110