How to Fill Out and Submit DHS Form 480: Ethics Review and Approval

DHS Form 480 is the request every DHS civilian employee uses to get written approval before starting outside work or a business activity. You complete Sections 1 through 4 with your position details, the proposed outside job, and any conflicts; your first-line supervisor completes Section 5; then the form goes to your servicing ethics office for a decision. Do not begin the outside activity until you have a signed approval on file.¹

The requirement applies to full-time, part-time, and intermittent civilian employees across the department. DHS Headquarters staff submit the signed form by email to the Ethics and Compliance Law Division. Employees in other components contact their servicing ethics office for submission instructions.²

When You Actually Need to File Form 480

The regulation defines outside employment broadly: any non-Federal work or business activity where you provide personal services, paid or unpaid. That includes being an employee, consultant, contractor, officer, director, agent, attorney, advisor, trustee, teacher, or general partner for a non-government entity.³

Some activities sit outside that definition and do not trigger a Form 480 at all:

Speaking and writing done in a personal capacity, as long as they are not bundled with other professional services such as legal advice. Separate compensation rules under 5 CFR 2635.807 still apply.
Volunteering with charitable, religious, educational, or civic organizations, unless you serve in a fiduciary role, provide paid professional services, give compensated advice, or the work relates to your agency’s programs or policies.
Partisan political activities permitted under the Hatch Act.
State or federal military duty protected by USERRA.

Employees at FEMA, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement should check their component supplemental rules, which add restrictions beyond the department-wide regulation.³

Activities That Only Need Supervisor Notice

DHS has carved out fourteen categories of outside work that do not require a Form 480 or formal ethics review. You still notify your immediate supervisor before starting, giving the activity description, type of business, expected weekly hours, and confirmation that you have reviewed the applicable ethics guidance.²

Artistic activities: performing as a musician or dancer; selling personally created art within the U.S. (no import/export).
Beauty and body care: hair, nail, skin services, massage, and wellness work.
Amateur athletics: paid sports officials or coaches.
Food service: waiter, host, food prep, and similar roles. This exemption does not cover Transportation Security Inspectors working in sterile airport areas.
Driving and delivery: rideshare (Uber, Lyft), food delivery (DoorDash, Grubhub), and freelance goods transport (Amazon Flex). Excludes work requiring a CDL, crossing international borders, or supporting international carriers.
Event support: wedding planning, photography, videography, florist work, graphic design, catering, and bartending. Not event security.
Officer roles in homeowners’ and alumni associations.
Personal training, so long as it is not conducted in federal or GSA-leased facilities.
Pet care: grooming, dog-walking, pet-sitting.
Retail sales: working at a store, but not owning one.
Substitute teaching at an accredited K–12 school.
Task-oriented freelance services through platforms like TaskRabbit or Instacart, including childcare, caretaking, shopping, and furniture assembly.
Trustee positions on personal trusts.
Renting out a personal residence or investment property that is not held through a business entity you own.

None of these exemptions apply if the activity involves a business you personally own, such as a sole proprietorship, LLC, or incorporated company. They also do not apply to employees of the Office of Inspector General, USCIS, or nonsupervisory Transportation Security Officers at TSA. Those employees file Form 480 even for the listed activities.²

Completing the Form Section by Section

Get the current form from your component’s internal portal or directly from your servicing ethics office. The form has five sections; you complete the first four, and your supervisor and ethics reviewer handle the fifth.⁴

Section 1: Privacy Act Statement

Informational only. It tells you the ethics office will use your responses to determine whether the proposed activity is prohibited, and notes that providing the information is voluntary but that skipping it may delay approval or forfeit the safe-harbor protections under 5 CFR 2635.107. Nothing to fill in.

Section 2: Employee Information and Proposed Activity

The top half captures your personal and position details: name, employing office or division, duty station (city and state), official DHS position title, employee type, financial disclosure filing status, email, and phone. Describe or attach your official duties, including any acting roles or detail assignments. The reviewer needs to see your current responsibilities clearly to spot conflicts.

The bottom half covers the outside work: the organization’s name, your position title, its website, and its physical address if there is no website. Indicate whether the work is compensated or uncompensated, and estimate hours per week. Field 7 asks you to describe the outside duties and how they might relate to your DHS work, including any connection to DHS contracts, grants, or programs. You can attach a position description or paste the job announcement link rather than rewriting it.

Section 3: Potential Conflicts With DHS Duties

This is where most requests run into trouble. Section 3 asks yes-or-no questions:

Do you interact with the outside organization in your DHS duties?
Does the position require you to communicate with or appear before other federal employees?
Does the organization do business with DHS?
Does the organization receive federal funds (contracts, grants)?
If yes, and you will be compensated, will you be paid with federal funds?

Any “yes” requires a written explanation. Be specific about the nature of the overlap and why you believe the work can proceed without creating a conflict. Vague answers are the fastest way to get a form kicked back.

Section 4: Certification and Signature

Your signature certifies that the information on the form is true and accurate. It also acknowledges that approval does not exempt you from DHS human resources policies (including leave rules), personnel security requirements, or the underlying ethics laws and regulations. DHS Headquarters employees are expected to apply a PIV-card digital signature; other components may have their own signing procedures.²

Getting the Form to Ethics

Once you sign, the form goes to your first-line supervisor, who completes Section 5. Your supervisor reviews the activity for scheduling conflicts and any apparent overlap with your official duties, then adds comments and a signature.⁴

Where it goes next depends on your component:

DHS Headquarters: after your supervisor PIV-signs, submit to the Ethics and Compliance Law Division at EthicsOfficeHQ@hq.dhs.gov.
Coast Guard: the first GS-14 or O-5 in your supervisory chain can approve the form or forward it to the Servicing Legal Office for further review.⁵
All other components: contact your servicing ethics office for routing instructions.

Submit well ahead of your anticipated start date. The regulation does not set a guaranteed turnaround, so file early and follow up with the ethics office if you have not heard back within a few weeks.

What the Ethics Reviewer Is Looking For

The reviewer checks the request against federal conflict-of-interest statutes and DHS policy. They focus on whether the outside employer does business with your part of DHS, whether you would need to recuse yourself from so many official matters that your ability to do your government job would be materially impaired, and whether the arrangement creates an appearance that DHS endorses the outside employer.⁶

You get a written determination. An approval may come with conditions, most often a formal recusal from certain official matters that touch the outside employer. A denial means you cannot engage in the activity while in your current position.

What Will Get a Request Denied

Certain activities are prohibited outright, and no supervisor or ethics counselor can waive them:

Participating in any DHS matter that directly affects the financial interests of your outside employer. This is criminal under 18 U.S.C. § 208, with penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 216.⁷
Acting as an agent or attorney for anyone else in a matter where the United States is a party or has a direct interest, even before a different agency.⁸
Using your DHS title, authority, or position to benefit an outside employer or client.
Using official time, equipment, email, or workspace for outside work.
Sharing sensitive, controlled, or classified information with an outside employer.

Some conflicts can be resolved through a recusal arrangement: you keep the outside job but are formally removed from all official matters touching the outside employer. Whether that works depends on how central those matters are to your government position.

A Separate Rule for Paid Teaching, Speaking, and Writing

Even though personal-capacity speaking and writing sit outside the Form 480 definition, a separate restriction kicks in if you plan to accept compensation. You cannot receive payment from a non-government source for teaching, speaking, or writing that relates to your official duties.⁹ The activity relates to your duties if any of the following is true:

It is part of your official duties.
The invitation came primarily because of your government position rather than your personal expertise.
The person paying you has interests that could be substantially affected by your official work.
The content draws on nonpublic information.
The subject deals significantly with any matter you are currently assigned to or were assigned to in the past year, or with any ongoing DHS policy, program, or operation.

You can still write or speak on those topics. You just cannot accept outside compensation for doing so. When the connection is unclear, ask your ethics office before accepting payment.

What Happens if You Skip the Process

Starting outside work without an approved Form 480 exposes you to administrative discipline ranging from a formal reprimand to a suspension of fifteen days or more. In serious cases, particularly where an actual conflict existed, removal from federal service is on the table. If the outside activity also violated one of the criminal conflict-of-interest statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 203, 205, or 208), penalties can include imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 216.⁷

Even if the outside work would have been approved on its merits, the failure to request approval is an independent violation. If you realize you started work without approval, file the form immediately rather than waiting; the outcome is almost always better with a self-report than with an inspector general finding.

Keep the Approval Current

Approval is tied to a specific pairing of your DHS duties and the outside activity you described. If the outside work changes in nature (different duties, a different employer, significantly more hours), submit a new or amended Form 480. Do the same if your government position changes in a way that could create new conflicts with a previously approved activity.

Keep a copy of your signed, approved form. If questions come up later during a financial disclosure review, a security reinvestigation, or an inspector general inquiry, having the documentation in hand resolves most issues on the spot.¹⁰

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eCFR. 5 CFR 4601.103 – Prior Approval for Outside Employment and Activities
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Department of Homeland Security. Outside Employment During a Lapse in Appropriations
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eCFR. 5 CFR 4601.101 – General
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Department of Homeland Security. DHS Form 480 – Request for Prior Approval of Outside Employment/Activity
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United States Coast Guard. Coast Guard Updates Outside Activities Policy
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.802 – Conflicting Outside Employment and Activities
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 208 – Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 205 – Activities of Officers and Employees in Claims Against and Other Matters Affecting the Government
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eCFR. 5 CFR 2635.807 – Teaching, Speaking, and Writing
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Department of Homeland Security. Management Directive 0480.1 – Ethics/Standards of Conduct