30 Percent or More Disabled Veterans

What it provides: This authority enables a hiring manager to appoint an eligible candidate to any position for which he or she is qualified, without competition. Unlike the Veterans' Recruitment Appointment, there's no grade-level limitation. Initial appointments are time-limited, lasting more than 60 days; however, an individual can be converted noncompetitively to permanent status at any time during the time-limited appointment.

Who is eligible: Eligibility applies to the following categories:

• Disabled veterans who were retired from active military service with a disability rating of 30 percent or more; and
  
• Disabled veterans rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (within the preceding year) as having a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more.

Spouses

Ten points are added to the passing examination score or rating of the spouse of a disabled veteran who is disqualified for a Federal position along the general lines of his or her usual occupation because of a service-connected disability. Such a disqualification may be presumed when the veteran is unemployed and

• is rated by appropriate military or Department of Veterans Affairs authorities to be 100 percent disabled and/or unemployable; or
• has retired, been separated, or resigned from a civil service position on the basis of a disability that is service-connected in origin; or
• has attempted to obtain a civil service position or other position along the lines of his or her usual occupation and has failed to qualify because of a service-connected disability.

Preference may be allowed in other circumstances but anything less than the above warrants a more careful analysis.

Veterans' preference for spouses is different than the preference the Department of Defense is required by law to extend to spouses of active duty members in filling its civilian positions. For more information on that program, contact the Department of Defense.

What To Do Next

If you are a person with a 30% or more disability rating and hold a certification eligibility letter from a State Vocational Rehabilitation Office or the Department of Veterans Affairs, you may apply for Homeland Security employment opportunities through one of several special hiring authorities.  Applicants with certification eligibility letters may apply directly to a Homeland Security Selective Placement Coordinator to be considered for a job.

Disclaimer

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers entitlement to veterans’ preference in Federal employment under title 5, United States Code, and overseas other statutory employment requirements in title 5 and 38.  However, the veterans’ preference laws do not guarantee veterans a job, nor do they give veterans preference in internal agency actions such as promotion, transfer, reassignment and reinstatement.

This page was last reviewed/modified on June 23, 2008.