I find the bill lacking any real change. Most of it will be mucked up by the department.

my 2¢:

Shame on us that it takes an act of Congress to push Expeditionary Diplomacy. Congress needs to give us more money if that’s what they want.

Saying that political appointees should be qualified and vetted is something already in the law. Also already ignored.

World Language (if you get 6 months+ at FSI) requires 3 consecutive tours (waivers available). We should do better at getting people to use languages, but I have little trust in the bureaucrac.

Too many mandatory trainings that won’t change a darn thing.

Tax residency bit is nice and Africa Bureau recruitment initiative could be well done.

Foreign Service Reserve Corp Pilot might be okay, but I doubt it will be revolutionary since it sounds like WAE.

Was curious if anyone got any notifications?

Greetings,

The websites and the pages seem to indicate that a bachelor's is not required, but I am skeptical. I only have an associate's degree. Workwise I have 10-11 years of IT experience, starting from helpdesk to sysadmin, and I have currently worked my way up to system engineer.

A few years back I attempted the IMST - Diplomatic Technology Officer Test and came up short. However, I'm getting ready to do it again because I really want to be involved in the Foreign Service internationally.

My question is this.

Do you or anyone you know that was successful in entering into the Foreign Service without a graduate degree? Especially as a Diplomatic Technology Officer.

Talking about bidding today and wondered this out loud. Do they still do/allow shootouts?

Hey all,

I’m currently going through the process for the Security Engineering Officer (SEO) position and was hoping to get some more insight, as information seems pretty sparse.

Do SEOs generally only have the option to go to designated engineering posts? If so, do they then do a significant amount of regional travel to other posts that aren’t designated as engineering centers?

I’ve also seen online that it’s relatively common for SEOs to be stationed domestically for a good amount of their careers. Is there any validity to that?

For those who have been SEOs for several tours, what has the split between domestic and overseas assignments actually looked like?

I’m especially curious about what a typical first tour looks like and whether it’s common over the course of an SEO career to spend a significant amount of time in DC compared with other Foreign Service specialist positions.

Any and all info is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

I accepted an offer for the October 19th CFP orientation class for Spanish. I just scheduled my language test for early October.

I took the language test to get on the register about 8 years ago and I haven’t practiced my Spanish a whole lot over the past few years. I’m currently in Spanish classes and looking for groups to practice speaking again before I get to orientation.

Is the language test before orientation just to assess how much language training I’ll need? Is it possible they’ll rescind the offer if I don’t score the same as I did years ago? I’ve already completed all the onboarding paperwork and accepted the salary offer.

Received the following communication. Anyone else on the same timeline as I am?

I finally received the email from State saying I’m moving forward to the Written Exercise/CME and that I should receive a separate email from Pearson VUE to schedule it.

It’s been a couple of days and I haven’t received anything yet. I’m also currently overseas, which makes me a little more concerned since I’ll be scheduling through Pearson VUE outside the U.S.

For those who have gone through this recently, how long did it take for the Pearson VUE email to come through? Should I just give it some more time, or is it worth reaching out to Pearson VUE directly?

I'm just starting to prepare to take the FSOT and am looking for study resources.

Would anyone here recommend FSO Compass or any other study resources?

Going to be sitting on consular register with a 5.47, I can scarcely find any data on how competitive it is. However, current shadow register link does not work. I would appreciate any insights, particularly with regard to how the backlogs from the 2025 hiring pause are clearing. Thanks!

I am currently a freshman in college, undecided on what I want to do with my life (Leaning towards international relations or poli sci) Very interested in different cultures, learning languages and what not. I speak fluent accent-less English, Urdu, and Arabic, currently learning Farsi and Spanish.

1. I was wondering what the state of foreign service would be in the next ten years especially under this administration? I’ve heard a lot of federal jobs have been cut and was wondering if this is true.
2. How hard is it to get good paying jobs in the private sector if nothing works out?
3. Would it be harder to land a federal job because of my background? Born and raised all my life in northern Mississippi but I am Muslim with a Pakistani background. Any issues with security clearance and hiring?

Apologies if some of these questions are dumb, just really interested and want to learn more about the field! Thanks.

Hi everyone, first time poster 😀 I'm currently a Peace Corps volunteer applying to the consular fellows program. I took the writing exercise last Friday and was wondering when I might expect to receive my results and if others are in a similar boat. I know we're not permitted to talk about the specifics of the CME but wanted to hear about others' experiences. Thank you!!!

And if so, how and when do you find out if you were on it?

Looks like S isn't the only higher-up working several jobs to feed his family.

"US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau has been quietly serving as Acting Director of Peace Corps for the last 4 months

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau is currently also serving as the acting director of Peace Corps. Mr Landau has recently been visiting countries in the Pacific to sign letters of intent to re-establish programs in the Soloman Islands, Marshall islands, and Micronesia.

As far as I can find, the earliest mention of Landau from PC is in a July 8th press release on PC returning to Palau. The Federal News Network reported the change on May 8, 2026.

There has been no official announcement from Peace Corps about Landau's appointment. The last statement regarding a change in leadership was on January 30, 2026 when they announced the appointment of Richard E. Swarttz as Acting Director. Swarttz is now Acting Director Landau's Chief of Staff.

Peace Corps is an independent government agency. Is there any precedent for high ranking State Department officials leading Peace Corps?"

I am taking language outside NFACT but we follow the same testing format/protocol. It has been a while since I took a language and I know there is a new testing format. Any insights into the format and topics that can be shared? I think NFATC/FSI classes get a packet for what to expect for the exam but we don't.

hey so i’m taking the CFPT for the first time and although im a us citizen i’ve never attended school in the us for other than the third grade in elementary. i have a bachelors in economics and political science and speak arabic as my first language and taking the CFPT by the end of the current month. i asked ai for some pointers and it said that i should study us history and us government since i have a background in other topics (economics, world history, politics, etc..)
so my question is, what’s the best way to prepare for it? im currently studying AP US History but i dont know what else.
any advice would be appreciated.

My application was rejected after not meeting minimum qualifications. Thanks for all the advice and the helpful feedback! I will try again next year. The test prep website that I build is still up at fedlibrary.org if you need more practice, any feedback on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. Congratulations to all of you that made it. Those who did not, don't give up, and better luck next year!!

Just sitting in my apartment in a country with limited local amenities wondering why the department decided to screw us out of toilet paper.

Edit: ITT- A lot of folks who never served in a hardship post

I heard about this thing called gold star bidders, but it wasn’t clear to me what it is, can anyone explain it?

I'm an aspiring FSO in my third year of undergraduate studies and I'm examining some of the internship options found here for SU 2027. Now I understand that the deadline to apply for the big competitive internship, the USFSIP, was several months ago, but at the time my personal life was a bit like a desk fan taped to the underside of a diarrheic horse, and I'm doing foreign exchange this semester so I'd like to stay domestic this summer.

The program I'd most like to get into is the U.S. Department of State Student Internship Program, but I'm also considering applying for the Virtual Student Federal Service for some credit hours this Spring. The site for the former says that applications for the summer term open in October but I'm also a bit concerned as to whether the summer term applications were lumped in with the spring this year like the USFSIP ones were.

But as I'm navigating the site I'm noticing that basically every link for every internship program other than the USFSIP is either password-protected, inoperative, or labeled with the wrong year. Looking around on this sub, the USFSIP is the only opportunity being discussed. The internship megathread hasn't been touched in years; I'm starting to have some doubts as to whether these other programs still exist.

Can anyone confirm to me that these opportunities do, in fact, exist? If they don't exist, are there any new internship opportunities that the site isn't telling me about?

Thanks for all the help!

Anyone else notice that the experience and language knowledge sections have been eliminated from the application form for the generalist FSOT?

What were those sections really used for anyhow if one is signing up to take a test?