Skip Naviation Bar
USAJOBS Working for America
Help
OPM homepageUSAJOBS is the official job site of the US Federal Government. It's your one-stop source for Federal jobs and employment information.
Search Jobs My USAJOBS Info Center - NEW Veterans - NEW Forms Employer Services
Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998, as amended
When an agency accepts applications from outside its own workforce, the Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) allows preference eligibles or veterans to compete for these vacancies under merit promotion procedures. Veterans who are selected are given career or career conditional appointments. Veterans are those who have been separated under honorable conditions from the armed forces with 3 or more years of continuous active service.

Purpose of the Law
Improved Access: The intent of the law is to open up opportunities to veterans that might otherwise be closed to them because agencies were increasingly limiting announcements just to "status" candidates - i.e., those who were already civil service employees. This law requires an agency to allow eligible veterans to apply when the agency will accept applications from individuals outside its own workforce. ("Agency," in this context, means the parent agency - i.e., Department of Defense, not Department of the Army.) Veterans' preference, however, does not apply to selections made under merit promotion procedures.

Improved Redress: The VEOA also allows a preference eligible who believes an agency has violated any of his or her rights under the veterans' preference laws or regulations, to file a formal complaint with the Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS). If VETS is unable to resolve the complaint within 60 days, the veteran may appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The law also makes a willful violation of veterans' preference a prohibited personnel practice under law.

Who is Eligible
To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, a veteran must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. ("Active Service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time National Guard duty, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.) A veteran who is released under honorable conditions shortly before completing a 3-year tour is also eligible.

How to Apply
Agency announcements will say when veterans eligible under this law may apply. The veterans will be rated and ranked with other merit promotion eligibles. Those who are among the best qualified may be selected by the appointing official, but veterans' preference is not a factor. If selected, the veteran will be given a career or career conditional appointment, as appropriate.

AS OF: 05-16-2000



VETERANS' PREFERENCE can be printed as it appears on your browser.

It also can be printed as an exact replica of the official publication (ei-52.pdf). Download the file by clicking on the .pdf file name and follow print help instructions below.

TOP

PRINT TIPS:

To Print your browser File:

*Prints file as it appears on your browser.
Most web browsers support an option to print the document that is displayed on the screen. Simply choose the option to print the document (usually located under the file option) and then choose the option to print. How the document prints is dependent on the printer you are using.

If you are on a local area network (LAN) then you may need to select a printer before you can print. An option to do this is normally available in the same area that you choose to print a document.

You will also need to make sure that the printer is powered on, is on-line, and has paper available.

To Print an *Adobe Acrobat/PDF files:

*Prints exact replica of official publication.
The Adobe Acrobat reader is a freeware product available from Adobe at http://access.adobe.com. There are versions of the Adobe Acrobat reader for several computer platforms. Click here http://access.adobe.com/ to connect to the Adobe Acrobat site. Once there you can obtain the reader for your computer platform. Follow the instructions on the Adobe site to install the reader on your system. Once you have installed the reader you can view or print files that end in .PDF.

Some browsers will allow you to configure a "helper" application that will load the Adobe Acrobat reader whenever you click on a file that ends in .PDF. Please refer to the instructions that came with your web browser on how to set up or install a "helper" application. The Adobe site also contains instructions on how to do this.

The Windows file manager will also allow you to specify an association so that whenever Windows needs to display a file that ends in .PDF it will load the Adobe Acrobat reader.

TOP

Home | Search Jobs | My USAJOBS | Information Center | Veterans | Forms | Employer Services
FAQS | Privacy Policy | Help | Site Map
Contact Us | Privacy Act and Public Burden Information

This is a United States Office of Personnel Management website. USAJOBS is the Federal Government's
official one-stop source for Federal jobs and employment information.
USA.gov - Government Made Easy eGov Working for America