Tips for Applying Jobs in U.S embassy

To be eligible in U.S embassy for consideration, candidates of all nationalities -with the exception of certain Eligible Family Members of Mission employees – must have the required work and residency permits at the time that they apply for local positions.

Local position vacancies are usually advertised inside and outside concurrently. However, make sure you are eligible to apply as some positions may be restricted to Mission employees only, or other specific categories. The recruitment process is competitive; effective April 1, 2016. Equally qualified candidates will be given preference in the following order:

(1)          AEFM / USEFM who is a preference-eligible U.S. Veteran*
(2)          AEFM / USEFM
(3)          FS on LWOP and CS with reemployment rights **

* IMPORTANT:  Applicants who claim status as a preference-eligible U.S. Veteran must submit a copy of their most recent DD-214 (“Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty”), equivalent documentation, or certification. 

A “certification” is any written document from the armed forces that certifies the service member is expected to be discharged or released from active duty service in the armed forces under honorable conditions within 120 days after the certification is submitted by the applicant.

The certification letter should be on letterhead of the appropriate military branch of the service and contain (1) the military service dates including the expected discharge or release date; and (2) the character of service.  Acceptable documentation must be submitted in order for the preference to be given.

** This level of preference applies to all Foreign Service employees on LWOP and CS with re-employment rights back to their agency or bureau.

Position staffing requires that U.S. citizen males over age 18 and born after December 31, 1959, register with the United States Selective Service System, or have an exemption from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Before applying: To be able to fill out and submit an application form, you will need your ERA User Account. Through your ERA User Account you will indeed be able to search for announcements, keep track of the status of your employment applications and file new application forms.

Please make sure you review The Eight Qualities of Overseas Employees (PDF 124KB) before applying.

Also have all your information ready with you. We shall be collecting both bio-graphical and demographic information, including: Name, Address, Telephone, Previous Education and Work Experiences.

We also request that candidates upload copies of documents relevant to each specific vacancy announcement (i.e. driving licenses, education degrees, etc.).

Failure to submit the above indicated documents will result in the applicant being unable to successfully close and submit the application.

Getting started: Identify the job you are interested in and click on it to access the related Vacancy Announcement. Make sure you review all qualifications required.

You will then be able to apply by selecting “Apply to this Vacancy“, featured at the top of each Vacancy Announcement. This will prompt you to the ERA Login Page.

The first time you access the ERA Login Page , you will be required to click on “Create an Account” and will thus have access to the “Account Creation” page.

Fill out Personal and Contact Information including First Name, Last Name, US Citizen status, Address, City/Town, Country, State/Province/Territory, Zip/Postal/Pin Code, Phone numbers and Email address.

Make sure you use the “Previous” and “Next” buttons located at the bottom of each page to navigate, as using the browser navigation buttons or refresh button may result in you losing important information. Fill in the blanks as required (mandatory fields are marked with a red *), and make sure you note down your password and the answers to your three Secret Questions.

Once your account is officially created -a confirmation via an automatically generated email will also be sent- you will be assigned an ID, associated with your Email address.

Please save this information for future reference so that you will always be able to get back into the system.

The ID/email address and your password will indeed allow you to log into the ERA system from that moment on.

Clicking “Done” will lead you back to the ERA Login Page, where you will now be able to use your newly created credentials. You will thus be guided through your application form as a set of four main steps.

The first step will be for you to answer Eligibility Questions. The answers to these questions will be the skeleton of your application and will be saved in connection with your profile for future use.

This means that when you apply to future vacancies, your application form will feature the responses inputted under the Eligibility Questions the first time, so that you will be able to either re-use them or edit them as needed.

All items marked with a red * are mandatory and require a response. These include items 2 thru 13 and item 35. If you are required to provide a typed response to a mandatory question that is not applicable to your situation, enter “Not applicable”.

You must complete the entire set of mandatory Eligibility Questions in order to be able to proceed. 

However, we strongly recommend that you provide as much info as possible in response to all questions (not only the mandatory ones) in order for the Office of Human Resources to be able to confirm and verify your qualifications.

Once you have answered the Eligibility Questions, clicking on NEXT will prompt you to two job-specific pages, featuring a series of job-related questions.
Focus on your current and past work experiences to draw on the skills that make you qualified for the job, bearing in mind that all the information you provide may be verified at any point and that any exaggeration of your work experience, false statements, or attempts to conceal information may be grounds for not hiring you or for terminating your employment after you begin work.

Note: you will be able to log-out and re-enter your application form as many times as you need; just remember to click on “Next” at the bottom of the page before logging-out (as if you wished to move from page to page), otherwise the inputted information will not be saved.

To re-enter your application, go directly to the ERA Login Page , sign in with your credentials and identify on your dashboard the application form you wish to re-enter.

Getting finished: Proceeding through the application form, you will be able to review all of your answers before officially submitting your profile for consideration.
Important: If asked to upload your “Certification“, please make sure you upload a copy of the degree/education diploma confirming you meet position minimum requirements as advertised.
Once you have submitted your application form, a confirmation window will automatically appear. You will also be able to download a copy for your records.

Note: You will be able to modify the application form at any time before the vacancy announcement closes, even if you have already submitted it.

Simply login into ERA again, access your dashboard, select the vacancy announcement and update/edit your application.

Attention: The on-line Application Form will always be in English. You can download the ERA Applicant User Guide (PDF 2MB) for detailed information on how to create your user account and complete the application form.

Source: U.S embassy

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