[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13341-13348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03606]


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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 3090-XXXX; Docket No. 2024-0001; Sequence No. 2]


Information Collection; Actual Place of Residence Determination 
(GSA Form 5047)

AGENCY: Office of Human Resource Management, Division of Human Capital 
Policy and Programs, General Services Administration (GSA).

ACTION: Notice of request for comments regarding a request for a new 
OMB clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a new 
information collection requirement.

DATES: Submit comments on or before April 22, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 3090-
XXXX; ``Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 5047)'' to: 
https://www.regulations.gov. Submit comments via the Federal 
eRulemaking portal by searching for ``Information Collection 3090-XXXX; 
``Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 5047).'' Select the 
link ``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds with ``Information 
Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 
5047).'' Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a Comment'' 
screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence 
Determination (GSA Form 5047)'' on your attached document. If your 
comment cannot be submitted using https://www.regulations.gov, call or 
email the points of contact in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
section of this document for alternate instructions.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite ``Information 
Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 
5047),'' in all correspondence related to this collection. Comments 
received generally will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business 
confidential information provided. To confirm receipt of your 
comment(s), please check www.regulations.gov, approximately two-to-
three days after submission to verify posting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colin C. Bennett, Human Resources 
Specialist, Office of Human Resources Management, Division of Human 
Capital Policy and Programs, at telephone 240-418-6822 or via email to 
[email protected] for clarification of content.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    The General Services Administration (GSA) routinely hires, 
reassigns, promotes and transfers Federal employees to duty stations in 
foreign areas (i.e., locations outside of the United States, its 
territories and possessions). For this staffing activity, GSA pays for 
the cost of relocation, known as ``permanent change of station'' 
relocation benefits (see further 5 U.S.C. 5722(a) and 5724(d)). 
Relocation benefits include the cost of travel and transportation, as 
well as the cost of shipment of household goods to a new post outside 
of the Continental United States. In addition, most overseas employees 
are eligible for ``renewal agreement travel,'' a travel reimbursement 
authority that allows agency to leverage funds to pay for periodic 
travel back to the United States between overseas tours of duty for 
paid time off, known as ``home leave'' (see further, 5 U.S.C. 5728(a) 
and 5 U.S.C. 6305(a)).
    For an agency to calculate the costs of relocation as well as 
renewal agreement travel, both federal travel laws require that the 
employee (or appointee) designate an ``actual place of residence.'' 
When such residence cannot be easily determined by the job candidate, 
the agency must instead make an administrative residency determination 
on behalf of the employee. The new GSA Form 5047 will help agency 
representatives (i.e. human resources specialists) make a determination 
of the actual place of residence based upon documents and input 
provided by the job candidates, considered members of the public.
    Typically, agencies use the definition of ``residence'' from the 
Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, codified at 5 U.S.C. 
1101(33), which defines ``residence'' as a ``place of general abode'' 
or the ``principal, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to 
intent.'' While for most employees (or appointees) the determination of 
an actual place of residence in the U.S. is typically straightforward, 
residency may be unclear if the appointee is already overseas and has 
been overseas for a long period of time. Long-term posts overseas are 
often characterized by the lease (or even sale) of the employee's 
primary U.S. dwelling, changes in the declared U.S. voting registration 
location, and/or changes in the state and local income or property tax 
jurisdictions.
    To more effectively administer permanent change of station 
relocation as well as renewal agreement travel, the General Services 
Administration (GSA) has created a new agency form, GSA Form 5047, 
Actual Place of Residence Determination. This form will allow 
employees, job candidates, and the agency's human resources 
specialists, to more easily determine the actual place of residence by 
working through a series of guided questions on the form's worksheet. 
Following completion of the form's worksheet, the employee, candidate, 
and human resources specialist can summarize the determination on the 
form's front cover sheet.
    The questions on the worksheet portion of the form are drawn from 
governing administrative law authorities, primary Comptroller General 
decisions such as: Rafael Arroyo, decision B-197205 (May 16, 1980), 
decision B-157548 (Sept. 13, 1965), 45 Comp. Gen. 136, and decision B-
140748 (Oct. 29, 1959), 39 Comp. Gen. 337. Under these administrative 
law authorities, the place of actual residence is established at the 
time of appointment or transfer (see also decision B-136029, June 24, 
1958, 37 Comp. Gen. 846). Use of this form is therefore recommended for 
all overseas appointments, transfers or reassignments and, in 
particular, those personnel selections of job candidates via agency 
transfer employed by a different U.S. Government agency and already 
present overseas.
    Use of this form will allow GSA to comply with the Federal Travel 
Regulations, which require the

[[Page 13342]]

administrative determination and documentation of the actual place of 
residence for all overseas appointments or placements (see further 41 
CFR 302-3.509). In addition, this form will also allow the agency to 
leverage the renewal agreement travel authority (i.e., the Home Leave 
Act of 1954, 68 Stat. 1008) only when appropriate and not in the rare 
cases of local foreign hires who have severed all jurisdictional 
nexuses with the U.S.
    Significantly, this residency determination form can also be used 
to determine eligibility for the following other overseas allowance and 
benefit authorities: (a) the 45-day annual leave accrual authority (5 
U.S.C. 6304(b)), (b) home leave (5 U.S.C. 6305(a)) and (c) living 
quarters allowance (5 U.S.C. 5923(a)(2)). Under each of these 
authorities, local hires who currently live in foreign areas are 
excluded from benefits eligibility unless they can demonstrate that 
foreign residence is temporary, is only pursuant to continuous 
employment overseas with the U.S. Government (or other U.S. interest), 
and finally, there exists a contractual transportation agreement that 
provides for the eventual return of the job candidate to a 
specifically-identified place of actual residence within the U.S.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    Respondents: 25 per year.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Total Annual Responses: 25.
    Hours per Response: 1.
    Total Burden Hours: 25.

C. Public Comments

    Public comments are encouraged, and are particularly invited, on: 
(a) whether this collection of information is necessary, (b) whether it 
will have practical utility, (c) whether our estimate of the public 
burden of this collection of information is accurate (and based on 
valid assumptions and methodology), (d) whether or not there are ways 
to enhance the new form's utility and clarity of the information to be 
collected, and (e) whether or not there might be ways in to minimize 
the data collection burden through the use of information technology.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: We have provided a copy of the 
proposed draft GSA Form 5047 at the end of this notice below the 
signature block. A copy of the proposed draft form can alternatively be 
obtained through GSA's Regulatory Secretariat Division by calling (202) 
501-4755 or emailing [email protected]. Please cite OMB Control No. 
3090-XXXX, Actual Place of Residency Determination (GSA Form 5047), in 
all correspondence.

Lois Mandell,
Director, Regulatory Secretariat Division, General Services 
Administration.
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[FR Doc. 2024-03606 Filed 2-21-24; 8:45 am]
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