[Request for Reconsideration of Claim for Home Leave and Travel Benefits]

A Forest Service employee requested reconsideration of a decision which denied his claim for home leave and travel benefits. The record showed that the claimant had been employed with the Forest Service in Puerto Rico continuously since 1973, at which time the Service determined Puerto Rico to be his actual place of residence. In 1980, the claimant requested that his actual place of residence be changed to Wisconsin and that he be granted home leave and travel benefits; the Service denied this request. The claimant stated that, at the time of his appointment in Puerto Rico, his legal residence or domicile was Wisconsin and that his permanent place of residence had been Wisconsin prior to 1971. He contended that his employment in Puerto Rico did not change his domicile because, when he accepted the appointment, he considered it to be temporary. GAO held that: (1) there was no basis for concluding that the agency's determination of the claimant's place of residence was erroneous in fact or contrary to law; and (2) an employee's domicile and his place of residence are not necessarily the same. Accordingly, the employee was not entitled to the home leave and travel benefits in question, and the prior decision was affirmed.