whatbindsCheck your order

Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions

FAR 52.225-19 Contractor Personnel in a Designated Operational Area or Supporting a Diplomatic or Consular Mission outside the United States

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

Paragraph (q), Subcontracts: 'The Contractor shall incorporate the substance of this clause, including this paragraph (q), in all subcontracts that require subcontractor personnel to perform outside the United States—' followed by the same two conditions as the prescription. The mandate bites only on subcontracts whose people actually go; a subcontract performed entirely stateside is outside it even when the prime contract is not

Form
substance, including paragraph (q) itself — self-perpetuating
Reaches
all tiers (the (q) mandate reproduces itself at every level)

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition May 2020 (no alternates; page shows FAC 2026-01, effective 2026-03-13) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

9 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something somebody else has to issue you5

    The same day if the issuer is one of your own suppliers, months if it is an assessor or an underwriter.

    • Completed security and background checks for everyone going, acceptable to the buyer

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(i)

    • Medical and physical fitness confirmed and every required vaccination given

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(ii)

    • Passports, visas, entry permits and the other documents needed to enter and leave the country, including any country transited

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(iii)
    • A country or special area clearance, and a theater clearance

      Owed where the chief of mission requires the country or special area clearance, or the combatant commander requires the theater clearance

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(iv)
    • Authorization for anyone to carry a weapon, issued by the contracting officer with the combatant commander's or chief of mission's approval behind it

      Owed only where your people are to carry weapons

      FAR 52.225-19(i)

  2. A state you have to be in, in a government system

    The record has to be posted before the prime can see it, and posting is not the same day as being ready.

    • Each US citizen among them registered with the US Embassy or Consulate with jurisdiction over the area of operations

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(vii)

  3. Something you write3

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • Personal security training given before departure, covering at a minimum the safety and security issues those employees will face, contingency planning, and the resources available to them

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(2)(v)

    • Written notice to your non-host-country nationals that conduct overseas can be prosecuted in US courts under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the War Crimes Act

      FAR 52.225-19(e)(3)

    • A current list of your people in the areas of performance, kept with the designated Government official and updated as they rotate

      FAR 52.225-19(g)

When it is used

FAR 25.301-4: insert in solicitations and contracts, other than personal service contracts with individuals, that require contractor personnel to perform outside the United States in (1) a designated operational area during a contingency operation, a humanitarian or peacekeeping operation, or another military operation or exercise designated by the combatant commander, or (2) support of a diplomatic or consular mission at a post designated by the Department of State as a danger pay post, or that the contracting officer otherwise determines appropriate. There is no dollar threshold and no commercial carve-out in the prescription. For DoD, DFARS 225.301-4 adds an exception: 'The clause shall not be used when all contractor personnel performing outside the United States will be covered by the clause at 252.225-7040.' Since 252.225-7040 is the DoD instrument for exactly this population, a DoD subcontract that carries 52.225-19 is usually carrying the civilian-agency twin of a clause it already has.

Read closely

(e)(1) says the specifics behind (e)(2) are set out in the statement of work or elsewhere in the order, so the detail of each item is in your document rather than in the clause; (e)(2)(vi) adds isolated personnel training where the contract calls for it. (q) reproduces the whole set in any of your own orders whose people go, and an order performed entirely stateside is outside it even where the contract above is not. For Department of Defense work, DFARS 225.301-4 directs that this clause not be used where 252.225-7040 already covers everyone performing outside the United States.

The 3 templates that name it, with the line
233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 579255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 1052243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1974

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.225-19 (including paragraph (q)), FAR 25.301-4, and DFARS 225.301-4 (verified 2026-08-05)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.