{"data":{"id":"us/22-cfr-19.6-2","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"22 CFR 19.6-2","heading":"-2 Qualifying court order.","body":"(a) To be valid for purposes of this section, a court order must be found to be “qualified” by PER/ER/RET acting for the Secretary of State. A qualifying court order must—\n(1) Be consistent with the terms of the Act and applicable regulations;\n(2) Not direct payment of an amount in excess of the maximum amount authorized to be paid by the relevant regulation;\n(3) Direct that payments be made to an eligible beneficiary from a principal's Foreign Service retirement benefit or survivor benefit. If a court directs or implies that a principal, rather than the Secretary of State or the Government, make the payments, the order will not be considered qualified unless the principal does not object during the 30-day notice period provided under § 19.6-6;\n(4) Define the amount to be paid to a beneficiary in way so that it can be readily calculated from information in the normal files of the Department;\n(5) Not make payment contingent upon events other than those on which other payments from the Fund are based such as age, marital status and school attendance; and\n(6) Not be in conflict with any previously issued court order which remains valid.\n(b) No apportionment of annuity to a beneficiary under § 19.6-1(a) (1) or (6) shall exceed the net annuity of the principal. The net annuity is computed by excluding from the gross annuity the amounts which are:\n(1) Owed by the individual to the United States;\n(2) Deducted for health benefits premiums pursuant to section 8906 of Title 5, United States Code;\n(3) Deducted for life insurance premiums under the Government Life Insurance Program;\n(4) Owed due to overpayment of annuity;\n(5) Properly withheld for Federal income tax purposes, if amounts withheld are not greater than they would be if the individual claimed all dependents to which he/she was entitled.","path":["Title 22—Foreign Relations","CHAPTER I—DEPARTMENT OF STATE","SUBCHAPTER B—PERSONNEL","PART 19—BENEFITS FOR SPOUSES AND FORMER SPOUSES OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-22.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:49Z","sha256":"6128bb279af8ce604f983e62f83d649b98ef6996d9fda4e2464c1279153d8422","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/22-cfr-19.6-1","next":"us/22-cfr-19.6-3"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}