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Title 22, Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-110

§4043 Participants

Title 22 › CHAPTER 52 — FOREIGN SERVICE › SUBCHAPTER VIII — FOREIGN SERVICE RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY › Part I — Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System › § 4043

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Career Foreign Service members can join and get benefits under the System if they have a career appointment, are career candidates in the Senior Foreign Service, or are paid under the Foreign Service salary schedule. Chiefs of mission who are not covered that way can still qualify if they have served 20 years as chief of mission and have paid a special contribution for each year. Taking an executive-branch job appointed by the President does not end eligibility. Binational Center Grantees, or people in similar appointments under the Foreign Service Act of 1946, who finished at least 5 years of satisfactory service may join and get credit for that time if they pay the required special contribution. Anyone covered by the Foreign Service Pension System (part II) is not a participant.

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §4043

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Career appointees or candidates; chiefs of mission
Except as provided in subsection (d), the following members of the Service (hereinafter in this part referred to as “participants”) shall be entitled to the benefits of the System:
(1)Every member who is serving under a career appointment or as a career candidate under section 3946 of this title—
(A)in the Senior Foreign Service, or
(B)assigned to a salary class in the Foreign Service Schedule.
(2)Every chief of mission, who is not a participant under paragraph (1), who—
(A)has served as chief of mission for an aggregate period of 20 years or more, and
(B)has paid into the Fund a special contribution for each year of such service in accordance with section 4045 of this title.
(b)Executive branch appointees
Any otherwise eligible member of the Service who is appointed to a position in the executive branch by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or by the President alone, shall not by virtue of the acceptance of such appointment cease to be eligible to participate in the System.
(c)Binational Center Grantees
In addition to the individuals who are participants in the System under subsection (a), any individual who was appointed as a Binational Center Grantee and who completed at least 5 years of satisfactory service as such a grantee or under any other appointment under the Foreign Service Act of 1946 may become a participant in the System, and shall receive credit for such service if an appropriate special contribution is made to the Fund in accordance with section 4045(d) or (f) of this title.
(d)Exclusion
An individual subject to the Foreign Service Pension System (described in part II) is not a participant in this System.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Foreign Service Act of 1946, referred to in subsec. (c), is act Aug. 13, 1946, ch. 957, titles I to X, 60 Stat. 999, which was classified principally to chapter 14 (§ 801 et seq.) of this title, and was repealed by Pub. L. 96–465, title II, 2205(1), Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2159.

Amendments

1986—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 99–335, §§ 402(a)(2), 414(1), substituted “Except as provided in subsection (d), the” for “The” and “part” for “subchapter” in provisions preceding par. (1). Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 99–335, § 414(2), added subsec. (d).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1986 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 99–335 effective Jan. 1, 1987, see section 702(a) of Pub. L. 99–335, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 8401 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 4043

Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110