Veterans' preference in federal hiring: how the points work and who qualifies

If you've read a federal job posting on USAJOBS, you've probably seen a line about veterans' preference and wondered what it does for you. We'll walk through how it works, who qualifies, and the separate hiring paths that sit alongside it, so the posting language makes sense next time.

What veterans' preference is

Veterans' preference gives eligible veterans preference in appointment over many other applicants. It applies to all new appointments in the competitive service and to many in the excepted service.

Preference doesn't guarantee anyone a job, and it doesn't apply to moves inside an agency, such as promotions, transfers, reassignments and reinstatements.

Eligibility starts with your discharge. Only veterans discharged or released from active duty under honorable conditions qualify, which means an honorable or general discharge. From there, it can be based on your dates of active duty service, a campaign badge, a Purple Heart or a service-connected disability. Some active duty service doesn't qualify, so the details below matter.

The three types: 0, 5 and 10 points

5-point preference covers non-disabled veterans whose active duty meets one of several conditions. The ones most likely to apply to people getting out now:

• more than 180 consecutive days of active duty, other than for training, with any part of it between September 11, 2001 and August 31, 2010
• service during the Gulf War, between August 2, 1990 and January 2, 1992
• service in a war, campaign or expedition for which a campaign medal or badge has been authorized

So a campaign or expeditionary medal can make you eligible even when your dates fall outside those windows.

10-point preference covers veterans who served at any time and have a service-connected disability or received a Purple Heart. Disabled veterans receive 10 points regardless of their rating, though the rating sets which group you're placed in.

0-point preference, also called sole survivorship preference, covers people released from active duty after August 29, 2008 because they were the only surviving child in a family where a parent or sibling who served was killed, died of wounds, accident or disease, is missing or captured, or is permanently 100 percent disabled or hospitalized. No points get added, but those veterans are listed ahead of non-preference applicants with the same score or in the same quality category.

The rule retirees often miss

A retired member of the armed forces counts as preference eligible only if they're a disabled veteran or retired below the rank of major or its equivalent. Retiring as enlisted or at O-3 and below leaves your eligibility intact. Retiring at O-4 or above takes you out of preference unless you have a service-connected disability.

How preference is actually applied

Federal hiring uses preference groups, each with a short code you may see in hiring paperwork:

• CPS: disability rating of 30 percent or more (10 points)
• CP: disability rating of at least 10 percent but less than 30 percent (10 points)
• XP: disability rating under 10 percent (10 points)
• TP: preference eligible with no disability rating (5 points)
• SSP: sole survivorship preference (0 points)

How those groups play out depends on how the agency scores applicants.

When an agency uses a numerical score, 5 or 10 points get added to the score of qualified preference eligible applicants.

Other agencies use category rating, which sorts applicants into quality groups. There, veterans in CPS and CP go to the top of the highest category on the referral list, except for scientific or professional positions at GS-9 or higher. XP and TP veterans go above non-preference applicants within whatever category they've been placed in.

In both systems, preference only applies once you meet the job's qualifications, so your federal resume still has to show that you do.

Applying before you separate

You don't have to wait for your DD-214 to start applying. If you expect an honorable discharge, you can apply as a preference eligible using a written certification from your service that says you're expected to be discharged or released under honorable conditions within 120 days of the date it's signed. The circumstances of your discharge are verified when you're actually appointed, and the agency will ask for a copy of your DD-214 before that appointment.

For 10-point preference, applications also call for an SF-15, the Application for 10-Point Veterans' Preference, along with documentation of the disability.

Special hiring paths built for veterans

Federal hiring also has several authorities that let an agency appoint an eligible veteran without the usual competition. None of them is an entitlement, and each is used at the agency's discretion. Job announcements list which ones apply under "Who May Apply."

Veterans Recruitment Appointment (VRA). This lets an agency appoint an eligible veteran without competition to positions up to GS-11 or equivalent. You may qualify if you separated under honorable conditions and you received a campaign badge or served during a war, you're a disabled veteran, you received an Armed Forces Service Medal (which includes the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal), or you separated within the last 3 years. After 2 years of satisfactory, substantially continuous service in a permanent VRA job, you're converted to the competitive service. Temporary and term VRA jobs don't convert.

30 percent or more disabled veteran. This lets an agency appoint a veteran with a service-connected disability rating of 30 percent or more without competition, at any grade level. The first appointment is time limited, at least 60 days, and the agency can convert it to permanent at its discretion.

VEOA. The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act opens some jobs that would otherwise go only to current or former federal employees. It applies when an agency is filling a permanent competitive service job and recruiting outside its own workforce. You're eligible if your latest discharge was honorable or general and you're either preference eligible or served 3 or more years of active service. VEOA gives you the chance to compete. You still need to rank among the best qualified to be considered.

People with certain disabilities may also qualify under the Schedule A authority, which is open to anyone who meets it, veterans included.

Knowing what's on your record

Preference and these hiring paths all turn on details from your service: your dates, your awards, your discharge and, for some, your disability rating. Knowing which ones you hold before you write a federal resume makes it easier to claim each one that fits.

That's the kind of thing Loona One is being built to keep track of. Your Career Record holds your service history in one place, and job and SkillBridge search helps you find openings. Both are in private testing, with limited search coverage for now, and Loona One is free for the Founding 100.