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Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-110

§5522 Advance Payments; Rates; Amounts Recoverable

Title 5 › PART III — EMPLOYEES › Subpart D — Pay and Allowances › CHAPTER 55 — PAY ADMINISTRATION › SUBCHAPTER III — ADVANCEMENT, ALLOTMENT, AND ASSIGNMENT OF PAY › § 5522

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Agency heads can give an employee up to 30 days of salary, allowances, and extra pay in advance when the employee or their dependents are officially ordered to leave a location. This can be for departures ordered from places outside the United States when the Secretary of State says it’s in the national interest, or from anywhere where life is in imminent danger. In emergencies, an agency can advance money for an employee of another agency if that other agency will reimburse the cost. The advance is paid at the employee’s currently authorized rates on the payment date, and it cannot exceed the rates the employee had right before the departure order. The government can recover the advance by taking it from amounts due the employee (like pay or retirement credit) or by other legal methods. An agency head may waive recovery if collecting the money would be unfair, unjust, or against the public interest.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §5522

Government Organization and Employees, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The head of each agency may provide for the advance payment of the pay, allowances, and differentials, or any of them, covering a period of not more than 30 days, to or for the account of each employee of the agency (or, under emergency circumstances and on a reimbursable basis, an employee of another agency) whose departure (or that of his dependents or immediate family, as the case may be) from a place inside or outside the United States is officially authorized or ordered—
(1)from a place outside the United States from which the Secretary of State determines it is in the national interest to require the departure of some or all employees, their dependents, or both; or
(2)from any place where there is imminent danger to the life of the employee or the lives of the dependents or immediate family of the employee.
(b)Subject to adjustment of the account of an employee under section 5524 of this title and other applicable statute, the advance payment of pay, allowances, and differentials is at rates currently authorized with respect to the employee on the date the advance payment is made under agency procedures governing advance payments under this subsection. The rates so authorized may not exceed the rates to which the employee was entitled immediately before issuance of the departure order.
(c)An advance of funds under subsection (a) of this section is recoverable by the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia, as the case may be, from the employee or his estate by—
(1)setoff against accrued pay, amount of retirement credit, or other amount due to the employee from the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia; and
(2)such other method as is provided by law.
The head of the agency concerned may waive in whole or in part a right of recovery of an advance of funds under subsection (a) of this section, if it is shown that the recovery would be against equity and good conscience or against the public interest.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

DerivationU.S. CodeRevised Statutes andStatutes at Large 5 U.S.C. 3072.Sept. 26, 1961, Pub. L. 87–304, § 2, 75 Stat. 662. Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1980—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 96–465, § 2303(a), substituted “departure” for “evacuation”, substituted “is officially authorized or ordered” for “is ordered for military or other reasons which create imminent danger to the life or lives of the employee or of his dependents or immediate family”, and added pars. (1) and (2). Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 96–465, § 2303(b), substituted “departure” for “evacuation” after “issuance of the”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1980 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 96–465 effective Feb. 15, 1981, except as otherwise provided, see section 2403 of Pub. L. 96–465, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 3901 of Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 5522

Title 5, Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110