The federal government has all sorts of hiring paths for different individuals, including one that accommodates families of overseas employees.
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The USA JOBS website is an official government website with listings for many different fields with specific systems to support these families.
The United States government has a few crucial hiring programs for family members of federal employees or uniformed service members.
This program is for service members who are currently working overseas or those who have worked overseas in the past.
Applicants will have different hiring options depending on if they are currently working overseas and are planning on returning to the United States, or if they are intending to go overseas with their family member on an official assignment.
The first case is the applicant is working overseas and going to move back to the United States.
In this case, the applicant might be eligible for a competitive service job without needing to compete with the public.
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To meet the criteria, the applicant must be currently living overseas with a family member officially working at an overseas duty station.
They must also be the family member’s spouse, domestic partner, or unmarried child younger than 23.
Next, they have to have worked at least a year or 52 weeks in an appropriated fund position under a local hire appointment.
Finally, they must have received a successful performance rating for their work.
If all four of these requirements are met, they can apply for competitive service jobs in the United States.
Under the Family of Overseas Employees hiring path, the applicant will not have to compete with the public directly.
Applicants can also apply to merit promotion jobs if the job listing in question says that it is “open to family of overseas employees”.
In the next case, the applicant is moving overseas with their serving family member.
In this case, they may be eligible to apply for an overseas job with the federal government.
Broadly speaking, there are two options in this case.
It can be the Department of Defense’s Overseas Family Member Preference or the Department of State’s Family Member Appointment (FMA).
To be eligible under the Department of Defense’s Overseas Family Member Preference, the applicant must be living overseas with a family member who is working and officially stationed as a member of the United States Armed Forces or as a United States federal employee.
You must also be the family member’s spouse, domestic partner, or unmarried child younger than 23.
You must apply to a job within the same commuting section as your family member’s permanent duty station.
Finally, you cannot have accepted or declined a permanent position or temporary position of a year or longer at the family member’s new duty station.
To be eligible under the Department of State’s Family Member Appointment (FMA), you must be a family member of someone who works for the Department of State.
You must be a United States citizen.
You must be the family member’s spouse, domestic partner who has filed an affidavit, or unmarried child under 21 but over 18.
Finally, you must be on travel orders accompanying a career foreign service or civil service employee or uniformed service member at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad, or you’re listed on the OF 126 (Automated Foreign Service Residency and Dependency Report).
Applicants who are military annuitants who meet the above criteria can apply under FMA unless they are a civil service annuitant. In that case, they are not eligible.
In general, it is crucial to note that eligibility does not equal entitlement.
Applicants are not entitled to a job in the federal government.
Everyone must apply and meet the qualification standards and other requirements, like passing a background check.
Applying for jobs with the Family of Overseas Employees path is really simple.
Listings will have a “This job is open to” section in the announcements with a teal blue airplane icon for jobs accommodating the Family of Overseas Employees hiring path.
As an example, there is currently a position open for a Nurse (Educator) working with the Indian Health Service for $91,351 per year.
To apply for a role, applicants should click on the “Apply” button and fill out all the necessary information.
Applicants can upload and submit these documents through the USA JOBS portal.
Applicants must make an account with login.gov and then make an account with USAJOBS.gov. They should add the Family of Overseas Employees hiring path to their USAJOBS.gov account.
The USA JOBS website has over 1,900 jobs under this specialized path, so there are plenty of options for applicants to consider.
Additional documents for this path are the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) Orders and the SF-50 form, which is a notification of Personnel Action for your family member.
Adjusting to life overseas can be a difficult lifestyle change to make.
Many family members of government employees find themselves struggling to find a job that will accommodate their unique struggles.
The main benefit of working under the Family of Overseas Employees path is that it is an easier transition for anyone planning on moving back to the United States.
Getting a job working for the federal government like your family member also helps make the change less stressful for the entire family unit because of the additional job security and familiarity.
Working overseas can be an exciting and also challenging time.
Fortunately, this hiring path established by the United States government provides plenty of unique opportunities to make employment easier for family members of overseas employees.
There are over 1,900 current positions available under this path here, so eligible applicants should start looking now.