Submission for OMB Review; Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 5040)
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 ...
[OMB Control No. 3090-0329; Docket No. 2026-0001; Sequence No. 1]
AGENCY:
Office of Human Resource Management, Human Capital Strategic Planning and Programs Division, General Services Administration (GSA).
ACTION:
Notice.
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 an extension to an existing information collection requirement.
DATES:
Submit comments on or before September 21, 2026.
ADDRESSES:
Written comments and recommendations for this information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to
( printed page 46441)
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Colin C. Bennett, Human Resources Specialist, Office of Human Resources Management, Human Capital Planning and Programs Division, at telephone 240-418-6822 or via email to
colin.bennett@gsa.gov
for clarification of content.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Purpose
Federal leave law (5 U.S.C. 6304(b) and 6305) requires that employees be on defined, time-limited, foreign tours of duty as well as have agency agreements in place for return transportation. The Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR) covering living quarters allowance (5 U.S.C. 5923(a)(2) and DSSR 031.12) also require documented tours of duty with an agency commitment for return transportation. At GSA, the overseas tour of duty and permanent change of station commitments and requirements are contained within a single, standard agency form: GSA Form 5040, the “Overseas Employment and Service Agreement”. As part of the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) (41 CFR part 302), when an agency pays for permanent change of station the employee must commit to at least one year of subsequent agency service. This form also contains clauses that serve to create an enforceable service agreement under the FTR.
This form was first developed during 2022 and was published for public comment on February 14, 2023 (88 FR 9521) and then on June 8, 2023 (88 FR 37542). Our agency has subsequently used this form to determine leave benefits and foreign allowance eligibility, advise employees of their rights and responsibilities, and ensure that the human resources and payroll accounting records are accurate before, during and after the permanent change of station.
B. Annual Reporting Burden
Respondents:
25.
Responses per Respondent:
1.
Total Annual Responses:
25.
Hours per Response:
8.
Total Burden Hours:
200.
C. Public Comments
A 60-day notice was published in the
Federal Register
at 91 FR 9854 on February 27, 2026. One comment was received.
The public comment asked if we could revise the language in Question 13 on the form, which discussed what may happen if the job candidate fails to remain in U.S. government service for 1 year following relocation to a foreign area. The public commenter asked if we could revise the information by using easier-to-understand terms and language.
We appreciate that comment and we therefore took this opportunity to revise and expand the narrative language in this question to provide greater clarity of when a breach of agreement (
i.e.,
contract) occurs, when it does not occur, and what happens financially in these types of circumstances. We attempted to use lay language so that it is easier to understand, without compromising the legal accuracy of the narrative.
Obtaining Copies of Proposals:
Requesters may obtain a copy of the information collection documents from the GSA, Regulatory Secretariat Division by emailing
GSARegSec@gsa.gov.
Please cite OMB Control No. 3090-0329, “Overseas Employment Service Agreement (GSA Form 5040),” in all correspondence.
Richard Speidel,
Deputy Chief Data Officer, General Services Administration.