Advance Shipment of Household Goods

An advance decision was requested concerning the propriety of reimbursing an Air Force employee for fees incurred for the advance shipment of some of his household goods. The employee was assigned to overseas duty and stated that he felt an evacuation of Americans from the station country was going to occur at the time he planned to be on leave in the United States. In anticipation of the evacuation, he mailed some of his household goods to his nondependent children in the United States. While he was on leave, the Department of Defense authorized that each employee could mail up to 500 pounds of household goods since the evacuation was expected. Subsequently, the employee sought reimbursement for the postal fees incurred for the advance shipment of the household goods. The authority to reimburse an employee for advance return of his household goods and personal effects is set forth in regulations that provide the following: an agency shall pay such expenses, not more than once, before the employee's return, when the employee has acquired eligibility for return transportation. The implementing regulations make it clear that eligibility for advance return transportation of household goods and personal effects accrues when the employee has completed his agreed period of service outside the continental United States. When the employee shipped the items, he had completed his agreed period of service and had acquired eligibility for the advance return of his household goods. Accordingly, the employee was entitled to reimbursement of the postal fees incurred for advance shipment of the household goods.