The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

L E T T E R S 8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 5 3 FAM 4100, Appendix B — with the potential to explode in the face of all FS employees. It requires that employees report within one month any cohabitation with a foreign national, regardless of the nature of the relationship. The FS employee is expected to require house guests to sign sworn statements using the same form we all use for a security clearance, including permission to release criminal and medical re- cords. From my experience, it is common for Foreign Service offi- cers and specialists to have foreign visitors stay in their homes, both domestically and abroad. But the 3 FAM language covers anyone living in your home in exactly the same manner as it covers romantic rela- tionships. There is a yearlong process going on now to review and change all FAM policy — called the FAM-X Working Group — and this is exact- ly the kind of thing that needs to be reviewed for more than just plain language. Expecting temporary house guests to submit to sworn statements and release of criminal and medical records is extreme and unnecessary. Policy regarding non- sexual, non-romantic temporary house guests should be broken out into a separate section from that which deals with those romantic and/or sexual and (presumed to be) long-term relationships that 3 FAM 4100 is meant to address. Appendix B should be changed. John Kane FSO Reston, Va. Career and Marriage Elizabeth Cobb (“FSI: Com- ments from the Field,” July-August FSJ ) states that until 1972, female FSOs were not allowed to remain in u