Eligibility
As a federal employee it’s important to understand which service you belong to, the type of appointment you are serving on and whether or not you have competitive status. Understanding these three things will determine if you qualify to apply for a position under merit promotion consideration.
Service, appointment, and status types
The Federal Government consists of three types of services:
Within those services there are several types of appointment including permanent and temporary appointments.
Read more about the federal services, appointments and status types.
Merit promotion
If you’re a current or former federal employee and hold a career appointment in the competitive service (also known as competitive status), or have completed the one-year career-conditional period, you are eligible for a merit promotion.
The merit promotion program lets a current or former federal employee apply for a job without having to compete with the general public. Instead, these individuals compete with other competitive status employees. However, veterans can't use status points for merit promotion jobs. Applicants are evaluated and ranked for the position based on their experience, education, competencies and performance.
Types of merit promotion
The Who May Apply section of each job announcement will say whether the position is open to merit promotion eligible candidates.