U.S. Department of State

TIMELINE

This is a rough generic outline of the steps that should address all three CA/LNA programs.

Once a Vacancy Announcement closes, USAJobs will send the Board of Examiners all the applications 7-10 days later. First the Board of Examiners will review the files administratively and then the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP) composed of consular officers trained in personnel techniques will review and rank order the applications based on the criteria spelled out in the Vacancy Announcement. The time will depend on the number of applicants, but you should receive e-mail notification of your status at roughly eight weeks.

If we are continuing your candidacy, you will be instructed to schedule a telephone test with the Foreign Service Institute (unless you notify us and FSI confirms an existing valid score) by a certain date. FSI will notify the Board of Examiners of the candidates who pass or fail the language test, and we will notify you accordingly. Again depending on the number of candidates this will take roughly a month to six weeks.

If you pass the language test you will be sent detailed information on scheduling an Oral Assessment. We will begin assessing as soon after we notify people to schedule their interviews as we can. We will continue until we have interviewed all the candidates who have advanced to this level. You will be notified immediately after the Oral Assessment if your candidacy is continuing.

If you pass the Oral Assessment (FSOA) you will then have the two-hour face-to-face interview with FSI to assess speaking and reading skills. This test may be the next day. Please allow enough time to take both components. You will be notified at the end of the language test whether you passed and are receiving a conditional offer of employment, i.e., conditional based on the positive results of your security, medical and suitability clearances.

Clearances take time so it will be important to complete the necessary paperwork as quickly and accurately as you can.

Once you have your clearances you will be placed on a rank order hiring register, based on your overall score at the FSOA. We do not have dates yet when classes will be called for the January and February Vacancy Announcements in Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese.

For more details the oral assessment see the entry under "interview Day" or go to our website: careers.state.gov. For generic discussions please address your points to this Forum. For problems with your individual candidacy, please send your query to CALNAINFO@state.gov.

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