Veterans’ preference is one of the more misunderstood parts of federal hiring. It is a real and legally protected advantage, but it works differently from what many applicants expect, and it does nothing at all unless you are qualified for the job and claim it correctly. This guide explains the rules, then shows where they can be applied: as of Oct 6, 2026, our inventory holds 3,754 open federal postings that are fully remote or telework eligible, 35 of them fully remote, posted by 261 distinct agencies. Preference applies to those postings exactly as it does to any other federal announcement, and the numbers refresh with each daily rebuild.
What veterans’ preference actually does
In hiring that uses a scored ranking, veterans’ preference adds points to an eligible applicant’s numerical rating: 5 points for standard preference and 10 points for the disability-based and related categories. In hiring that uses category rating, where applicants are sorted into quality groups rather than scored, preference-eligible veterans are placed at the top of the group they qualify for, and, with limited exceptions for professional positions at higher grades, those with a compensable disability of 10 percent or more are placed at the top of the highest group. In both systems, an agency that passes over a preference-eligible veteran to select someone without preference must document its reasons.
What preference does not do is as important. It does not guarantee a job, an interview, or a referral. It does not override the requirement to meet the announcement’s minimum qualifications and specialized experience; preference is applied only among applicants who have already been found qualified. And it does not apply to merit promotion announcements open only to current federal employees, though veterans may have separate routes into those, described below.
Who is eligible
Broadly, 5-point preference goes to veterans who served on active duty during specified periods of service (wars and certain other eras), or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge was authorized, and who were discharged under honorable conditions. The 10-point categories cover veterans with a service-connected disability or a Purple Heart, regardless of when they served, and extend in defined circumstances to certain spouses, widows and widowers, and mothers of veterans who are disabled or died in service.
The rules have real nuance. Active duty alone does not qualify you; the dates, the campaign, and the character of discharge all matter, and a military retiree at the rank of major or lieutenant commander or above is not eligible for preference unless disabled. OPM’s Vet Guide sets out every category, and USAJOBS asks the questions in the same terms. If you believe you may be eligible, verify your specific category against the official definitions rather than assuming from general service.
How to claim it
You claim preference inside each USAJOBS application by answering the eligibility questions and attaching the documents the announcement asks for: your DD-214, Member 4 or Service 2 copy, which shows the character of service, and, for 10-point preference, the Standard Form 15 (SF-15) together with proof of the claim, usually a VA letter stating your disability rating. Spouses and mothers claiming derived preference have their own documentation requirements, listed on the SF-15.
Claim it every time you apply, even if you have claimed it before. Your USAJOBS profile can store the documents, but each application is adjudicated on what is attached to it. A missing DD-214 or SF-15 means the HR specialist cannot grant preference, and by the time anyone notices, the certificate has usually been issued. Read the “Required documents” section of every announcement and check the attachments before you submit.
Where it applies, and where it applies differently
Preference has its most direct, mechanical effect in competitive-service hiring, which is what most announcements open to “the public” or “U.S. citizens” use. There it changes your rating or your category placement as described above.
In the excepted service, which includes attorney positions and several agencies’ entire workforces, preference still applies, but each agency administers it within its own procedures rather than through the competitive examining process. Under direct hire authority, which agencies may use for occupations with a severe shortage of candidates, preference does not apply at all; the announcement says so when it is used. And when an agency accepts merit promotion applications from outside its own workforce, preference-eligible veterans, and veterans separated under honorable conditions after three or more years of continuous active service, can apply under the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act, though they receive no points there. The announcement’s “This job is open to” section tells you which hiring path is in play, and the application timeline guide explains how the stages differ.
Two further authorities are worth knowing. The Veterans Recruitment Appointment lets agencies appoint eligible veterans without competition to positions up to a defined grade, converting to a competitive appointment after two years of satisfactory service. The 30 Percent or More Disabled Veteran authority lets agencies appoint eligible veterans noncompetitively at any grade, initially on a temporary or term appointment of more than 60 days that the agency can convert to a permanent one at any time. Agencies use both at their discretion, so an announcement may or may not mention them; we do not track which of the postings in our inventory are open under these authorities, so there is no count of them on this site. If you qualify, say so in your application and contact the agency’s veterans employment coordinator, who can tell you whether the authority is being used.
Where the remote and telework-eligible federal jobs are
Preference is only worth something if there is a posting to use it on, so here is what the federal side of our inventory looks like today. Every federal posting we hold is tagged fully remote, meaning the agency marked it remote on USAJOBS and the work can be done from an approved location anywhere, or telework eligible, meaning it has a specific duty station and allows some work from home. The split across all federal postings right now:
The agencies with the most open remote and telework-eligible postings in our inventory are:
- Veterans Health Administration 647 listings
- Federal Aviation Administration 209 listings
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 170 listings
- Army National Guard Units 75 listings
- Headquarters, Air Force Reserve Command 69 listings
Two agencies deserve a separate mention because veterans so often look there first. The Veterans Health Administration runs VA’s hospitals and clinics and hires across clinical, administrative, and IT work. The Veterans Benefits Administration adjudicates claims and runs the education, home loan, and employment programs, and much of that work is claims processing and case management. Each hub shows every open posting we hold for the agency, with its tier and advertised pay, so you can see for yourself how much of either agency’s current work is fully remote and how much is telework eligible. But preference applies everywhere in the federal government, not only at VA, and the list above shows where the volume is today.
The realistic summary
Veterans’ preference is a genuine advantage, but it operates on top of the qualification requirement, not instead of it. The strongest use of preference combines it with a federal resume that clearly demonstrates you meet the announcement’s specific qualifications, so the points or the category placement have qualified experience to work with. The federal resume guide covers how to write one, and the how to get a remote federal job guide walks through the application itself.
How to search for these
Start with the fully remote list if you need to work from anywhere; it is the complete set of fully remote postings in our inventory, federal and contractor, and the federal ones are where preference applies. If you can live near a federal office, the telework list adds every telework-eligible posting. The agency hubs linked above show each agency’s full inventory, and the agencies page lists every federal employer we track with its current counts. Every listing links to the original USAJOBS announcement, which is where you claim preference and apply.