How do you become a Foreign Service Officer?

The Foreign Service Written Exam (FSWE) is the first step in becoming an FSO. It is offered once a year in cities around the world. Find out more about the exam and the selection process:

SELECTION PROCESS

1. Register for the Written Exam

The first step to becoming a Foreign Service Officer is taking the Foreign Service Written Exam, which is offered once a year in the spring. Visit our exam information page for more details. The exam will measure your knowledge of subjects necessary for performing the tasks required of a Foreign Service Officer. There will be multiple-choice questions on a range of topics from the structure and workings of the U.S. Government to psychology to American culture to management and finance. The exam includes a job knowledge section, an English usage section, a biographic inventory, and an essay exercise. To be eligible, candidates must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 20 and 59, and be available for worldwide assignment. You can select your testing location from among hundreds of test sites around the world.

Click here for more information on how to prepare for the exam.

Have a question about Exam Results? Check out our Question & Answer Page for all of the answers!

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2. Select a Career Track

Foreign Service Officers are considered Generalists, but all Officers enter in one of five career tracks: Management, Consular, Economic, Political and Public Diplomacy. This is an important decision and applicants should carefully inform themselves before making a career track choice in the Exam. Successful candidates will take the second step - an Oral Assessment with reference to their chosen career track. Hiring is based on requirements in each of the five career tracks and candidates compete for appointment from their chosen career track where their composite Oral Assessment score determines their relative position on the career track register.

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3. Take the Written Exam

Upon receipt of your registration, you will be notified of the exact time and location of the exam, and you will receive an admission ticket. You must bring your admission ticket with you to the test location. The exam will take most of the day. Many candidates are understandably nervous about taking the exam. However, when you think about it, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. A couple of days before the exam, review the Study Guide, if you ordered it, one last time. The day before the exam, do something enjoyable to take your mind off the exam and then try to get a good night's sleep. When you show up to take your exam, make sure you have your admission ticket, a black pen, several No. 2 pencils and valid identification such as a photo ID card or a driver's license with photo.

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4. Oral Assessment

The Foreign Service Oral Assessment is a day-long series of exercises that tests for the knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal qualities deemed essential to the performance of Foreign Service work. The Oral Assessment has been revised to include Management Case Studies, which reflects the growing importance the U.S. Department of State places on resource management and quantitative analysis. More details on the Oral Assessment.

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5. Foreign Languages

There is no foreign language requirement to join the Foreign Service. However, the U.S. Department of State welcomes applicants who are proficient in one or more foreign languages. Those who pass the Oral Assessment can raise their ranking on the List of Eligible Hires (see Section 11 below) by passing a language test in any foreign language used by the U.S. Department of State. Additional credit is given to candidates who pass a test "critical needs languages" as defined in section 11 below. The U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service Institute conducts the test over the telephone.

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6. Background Investigation

Applicants who are successful in the Oral Assessment will be asked to submit forms for a security clearance required for appointment to the Foreign Service. The clearance process considers such factors as: registration for the Selective Service; failure to repay a U.S. Government-guaranteed student loan; past problems with credit or bankruptcy; failure to meet tax obligations; unsatisfactory employment records; violations of the law; drug or alcohol abuse; a criminal record; extensive travel; education; residence and/or employment overseas; dual citizenship; foreign contacts; immediate family or relatives who are not citizens of the United States and/or a foreign born spouse; or a less than honorable discharge from the armed forces. The Department of State conducts background investigations on each candidate to determine eligibility for security clearance. Investigations include interviews with current and previous contacts, supervisors and coworkers. Candidates who do not receive security clearances are ineligible for appointment. Potential Candidates who have any serious issues which could prevent them from receiving their clearance should give some thought to the likelihood of their being found ineligible before starting this process. These investigations are conducted by the Department of State in cooperation with other federal, state and local agencies.

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7. Medical Clearance

Worldwide availability is determined, in addition to the candidate's affirmed willingness to serve anywhere, by the medical clearance process. Before appointment to the Foreign Service, a candidate's medical history and comprehensive physical examination must be thoroughly evaluated to determine fitness to serve at any Department of State post worldwide. Many of these posts are located in areas which are remote and/or offer extremely limited medical support. Therefore, each candidate must meet medical fitness standards which are, of necessity, more rigorous than those of most other professions and which may exclude from employment candidates who have medical conditions which they manage successfully in their current environment.

Prior to any final offer of employment, the candidate must undergo a thorough medical examination and be cleared for unlimited assignment worldwide by the Department's Office of Medical Services. Candidates who fail to receive an unlimited medical clearance will be ineligible for appointment to the Foreign Service. All medical clearance determinations are based on an individual assessment of the needs of each candidate in light of his/her particular medical history and condition. All potential candidates, especially those with known medical conditions, should be aware of the possibility that they may not be granted an unlimited medical clearance if the Office of Medical Services determines that their condition requires monitoring or follow-up care that would not be available at Foreign Service posts, that service in a particular area would pose a significant medical risk, and/or that adequate medical care would not be available for them at all posts should life-threatening symptoms manifest or should the known medical condition require specialist or health care provider intervention. Some characteristics of the most isolated and limited posts include:

• Medically underserved in terms of inadequate medical resources — both medical and/or nursing staff and/or physical resources
• Unsanitary due to no public health infrastructure resulting in no potable water or sewage system
• Ridden with infectious and communicable diseases
• Isolated with no reliable electricity or lines of communication (e.g. transportation links, telecommunications services, postal and delivery systems, etc.)
• Dangerous and insecure
• Stressful
• Polluted environmentally via dust, dirt, and other air contaminants

After receiving a conditional offer of employment, each candidate is provided with instructions for the examining physician(s), which outline the Department of State's precise requirements. We also provide an authorization for the Department of State to pay for the exam. However, candidates living within a fifty-mile radius of Washington, DC must have the medical exam performed by the Office of Medical Services' Exam Clinic.

While the candidate must be medically cleared for worldwide duty, the Department of State does not consider the medical condition of eligible family members for pre-employment purposes. However, the Department does require medical clearances for family members before they can travel overseas at U.S. Government expense to accompany an employee on assignment. The consequence of this policy is that employees with family members with limited medical clearances may be assigned to posts where those family members could not accompany them. We strongly advise candidates to consider this situation as they pursue employment with the State Department, especially those with a family member whose medical condition(s) might ultimately limit his/her clearance.

When requested by the candidate, the Director General of the Foreign Service, or designee, will review the case of any candidate who has been determined not to be worldwide available. This review will determine whether or not it is in the best interests of the Service to appoint the candidate despite not being worldwide available. Waivers of the worldwide availability requirement are rare, however.

For more information on medical clearances please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.

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8. Worldwide Availability

Worldwide availability is both an affirmed willingness to serve anywhere in the world and a matter of being medically qualified to do so. Both the willingness and being medically qualified are essential requirements for appointment to the Foreign Service. Worldwide availability also means that, while members of the Foreign Service are expected to serve anywhere in the world, due to political instability and/or security concerns, in some cases family members cannot go to post (unaccompanied tours) or must leave post as security deteriorates (evacuations).

Regardless of who administers the medical clearance exam, the Department's Office of Medical Services determines whether or not a candidate is medically eligible for assignment to all Department of State posts worldwide. While a candidate may effectively manage a chronic health condition or limitation within the United States or in specific areas outside of the U.S., the Office of Medical Services might well determine that the same individual is not eligible for a worldwide ("Class One") medical clearance. Such clearances may only be issued to candidates whom the Office of Medical Services deems able to serve at the most isolated and restricted overseas posts.

Such a post could feature extreme isolation in terms of limitations on reliable air service in and out of the country, unreliable Internet and telecommunications connections, and/or unreliable postal and delivery systems. Any of these limited services can have a severe adverse impact in terms of both bringing in required medical services and/or supplies, and/or permitting timely medical evacuations. Other infrastructure at such a post might also be inadequate. There might be a poor or negligible public health system, poor sanitation, unreliable electricity and a lack of potable water. There might also be infectious and communicable diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, rabies, encephalitis and gastrointestinal diseases. There might be no health unit at the post and next to no local medical facilities. The emergency room, for example, might be completely inadequate, without ventilators, defibrillators, x-ray capabilities, etc. There often would be no blood bank or medical supplies or medications available locally. Because of political instability, security could be a concern.

Candidates should be aware that these posts are not few in number nor confined to a specific geographic region. Also, there are numerous other posts — in Asia and Europe for example — where conditions appear similar to that of the U.S. but which also feature some of these prohibitive characteristics.

As a result of these characteristics of a post, the stress level among employees might be very high. Given these concerns, the Department of State would only assign employees with unrestricted medical clearances to such posts (of which there are many), and is unable to hire new employees without such clearances.

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9. Candidates with Disabilities

The Department of State provides reasonable accommodation to Foreign Service candidates with disabilities throughout the pre-employment process. For qualified candidates who will require accommodation upon appointment, the Office of Employee Relations is responsible for determining reasonable accommodations. In order to be considered qualified, a candidate must meet all requirements for appointment to the Foreign Service. This includes having received an unlimited medical clearance from the Office of Medical Services or a waiver of the worldwide availability requirement from the Director General or his/her designee.

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10. Final Review

Upon completion of the background investigation, a Final Review Panel will review the completed file to determine the candidate's suitability for employment with the Foreign Service.

The attainment of U.S. foreign policy objectives depends substantially on the confidence of the public (both American and foreign) in the individuals selected to serve in the Foreign Service. The Department of State, therefore, requires the highest standards of conduct by employees of the Foreign Service, including an especially high degree of integrity, reliability and prudence. Given the representational nature of employment in the Service, employees must observe standards at all times. The purpose of the Final Review is to determine, from the candidate's total record, whether the candidate is indeed suitable to represent the United States. The Final Review Panel has the authority to terminate a candidacy at this stage.

In evaluating suitability, the Final Review Panel takes into consideration the following factors:

• Misconduct in prior employment, including marginal performance or inability to interact effectively with others
• Criminal, dishonest, or disgraceful conduct
• Misrepresentation, including deception or fraud, in the application process
• Repeated or habitual use to excess of intoxicating beverages affecting the ability to perform the duties and responsibilities of the employee's position
• Trafficking in or abuse of narcotics or controlled substances
• Reasonable doubt as to loyalty to the U.S. Government
• Conduct which clearly shows poor judgment and or lack of discretion which may reasonably affect an individual or the agency's ability to carry out its responsibilities or mission
• Financial irresponsibility, including a history of not meeting financial obligations or an inability to satisfy debts

The most common grounds for a finding of unsuitability are a recent history of drug or alcohol abuse and delinquency in repaying debt or other evidence of financial irresponsibility. Candidates whose file indicates such issues are unlikely to be found suitable for the Foreign Service. Potential candidates should give some thought to these suitability factors and the likelihood of obtaining a positive decision from the Final Review Panel before starting the application process.

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11. List of Eligible Hires

The names of candidates who are successful at the Oral Assessment are placed on a list of eligible candidates, based on the career track they choose and the scores they received during the oral assessment. A candidate's rank may be raised by claiming veteran's preference and/or a demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language (see #6), as determined by the Department through a telephonic assessment. Extra points are given to candidates who pass language tests in Critical Needs languages, currently defined as: Arabic; Chinese (Cantonese and Standard/Mandarin); Indic languages (e.g.,Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Bengali, Punjabi); Iranian languages (e.g. Farsi/Persian, Dari, Tajiki, Pashto); Japanese; Korean; Russian; and Turkic Languages (e.g. Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek).

Placement on the list of eligible hires does not necessarily mean that a job offer will be made - hiring is dependent on the needs of the Foreign Service. The FY2004 Hiring Plan calls for hiring 400 Junior Officers and 400 Specialists, but is subject to revision. Candidates' names will remain on the List of Eligible Hires for 24 months. If the candidate has not progressed to the next stage by the end of the 24 months, the candidacy will be terminated. Candidates wishing to reapply must start with the written exam.

Alternate Examination Programs

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