Leaving post, I was thinking how nice my five consultation days in DC would be after an 11-month training program: we’d get roughly $400/day for me + 1 EFM after having been down to $50/day for 6 months when the per diem dropped to 25%. NOTE WELL: If you stay in the same city where you had your TDY, your per diem for the consultations remains at the same reduced level (though you do get to add in for EFMs). If you have consultations in other cities AND that’s on your orders, you go back up to 100% for that new city. See this intranet-only Ask Admin answer for details.

One question still remains (and is relevant for folks going on some language immersions): if you leave DC (where you were on TDY) and travel on orders to another city/country and then return to DC to finish your TDY, you might be able to go back up to 100%. I haven’t found any citation to the contrary, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

I was a local hire and then went to post, where all of my travel vouchers were handled by FSNs. Imagine my horror when I had to navigate the voucher system all by my lonesome upon coming back to FSI for long-term language training. I would have killed to have this info before, so to prevent homicide I give you the following how-to: Read more on this Article!