Veterans Employment Opportunities Act: Eligibility, Rights, and Remedies

The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 gives eligible veterans the right to apply and compete for federal jobs that agencies would otherwise limit to their own current or former employees. It opens merit promotion announcements to qualifying veterans, lets a veteran selected through that process enter the competitive service on a career or career-conditional appointment, and provides a complaint and appeal system if an agency ignores those rights.¹

Who Qualifies

Two separate groups can use VEOA.

The first is preference eligibles as defined in 5 U.S.C. § 2108. That category covers disabled veterans, certain spouses of service-connected disabled veterans, qualifying parents of veterans who died under honorable conditions or who are permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected condition, and veterans discharged under a sole survivorship discharge.²

The second is veterans who were separated from the armed forces under honorable conditions after three or more years of continuous active service. An honorable or general discharge meets the character-of-service requirement.³ Active service means full-time duty in the armed forces. National Guard or Reserve training does not count unless the member was called to active duty under a federal order. OPM regulations also protect veterans who were honorably released slightly short of three years after completing an initial tour, so a separation at two years and eleven months on an initial enlistment is not an automatic disqualifier.⁴

Who Is Excluded from Preference Eligible Status

Two carve-outs narrow the preference eligible definition. Retired members of the armed forces do not count as preference eligibles unless they are disabled veterans or retired below the rank of major (or equivalent). A retired colonel with no service-connected disability, for example, falls outside the category. Anyone in or applying for the Senior Executive Service, the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, or similar senior executive programs is also excluded from preference eligible status.² These individuals may still qualify under the three-years-of-active-service pathway.

What the Act Actually Gets You

Federal agencies routinely restrict merit promotion vacancies to “status” candidates, meaning current or former competitive service employees. VEOA breaks that restriction: whenever an agency accepts applications from anyone outside its own workforce for a merit promotion job, it must also accept applications from preference eligibles and qualifying veterans, and the vacancy announcement has to say so.⁴¹

One point catches people off guard. The five- and ten-point veterans’ preference that applies in traditional competitive examinations does not apply here. Under VEOA, the veteran competes on qualifications alongside every other applicant with no numerical bump. The protection is access, not advantage.¹

Geographic Limits Do Not Apply to You

Some merit promotion announcements limit the “area of consideration” to a specific region or commuting area. A VEOA-eligible veteran can apply anyway. OPM guidance says a preference eligible or eligible veteran may apply to a merit promotion announcement even when they fall outside the vacancy’s stated area of consideration.⁵

What Selection Under VEOA Means

A veteran selected through a VEOA-eligible merit promotion announcement receives a career or career-conditional appointment in the competitive service. That appointment grants “status,” which opens future merit promotion opportunities at that agency and others without needing to invoke VEOA a second time.⁴ For a veteran coming from the private sector or from military life, VEOA can serve as a one-time bridge into the competitive service, and once inside, the veteran stands on the same footing as other federal employees for later positions.

What VEOA Does Not Cover

VEOA applies to competitive service positions in the executive branch. It does not apply to excepted service positions, which follow different hiring rules.¹ Many federal agencies mix competitive and excepted service roles, so check a vacancy announcement’s service type before assuming VEOA reaches it. Certain judicial branch positions are also exempt from the Act’s preference requirements, including judgeships, appointments requiring Senate confirmation, and positions with duties equivalent to the Senior Executive Service.⁶

If an Agency Violates Your Rights

Enforcement runs through the Department of Labor first, then the Merit Systems Protection Board, and potentially the Federal Circuit.

Step One: File With the Department of Labor

A veteran who believes an agency violated VEOA files a written complaint with the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) using Form VETS-1010. The complaint must be filed within 60 days of the alleged violation. Missing that window almost always ends the claim regardless of merit.⁷ The MSPB recognizes equitable tolling of the 60-day deadline in narrow situations, such as agency deception or a defective complaint filed within the window, but relying on those exceptions is a bad plan.⁸

DOL then has 60 days to investigate and try to resolve the complaint. If the investigation confirms a violation, DOL works with the agency to bring it into compliance. If DOL cannot resolve the matter within that period, it notifies the veteran, and the case can move to the MSPB.⁷

Step Two: Appeal to the MSPB

Two filing windows apply, depending on whether DOL sent a closing notice:

If DOL sent notice, the appeal must reach the MSPB within 15 days of receipt, with a copy of the notice attached.⁹
If no notice came, the veteran may file with the MSPB starting on the 61st day after the original DOL complaint. Before filing, the veteran must provide written notification to the Secretary of Labor of the intent to appeal.⁹

That written notice to the Secretary is easy to overlook and can create jurisdictional problems if skipped. At the Board, an administrative judge hears the case, and the veteran carries the burden of proving the violation by a preponderance of the evidence.¹⁰

Step Three: Federal Circuit Review

A veteran dissatisfied with the MSPB’s final decision can seek judicial review from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The petition must be filed within 60 calendar days of receiving the Board’s final order, and the Federal Circuit generally cannot waive that statutory deadline.¹¹ Under 5 U.S.C. § 3330b, a veteran may instead pursue the matter in federal district court rather than continuing through the MSPB process, though most claims go through the Board.

What You Can Win

When the Board or a court finds a violation, the standard remedy is an order requiring the agency to comply with the law and to compensate the veteran for lost wages or benefits. The Board does not simply install the veteran in the job. The usual remedy is a reconstruction of the hiring action so the agency redoes the selection under the correct rules. If the position has already been filled, the veteran may get priority consideration for the next comparable vacancy.¹⁰

A willful violation raises the stakes: the Board or court adds an amount equal to backpay as liquidated damages on top of the standard compensation.¹² A prevailing veteran is also entitled to reasonable attorney fees, expert witness fees, and other litigation expenses, and those awards are mandatory when the veteran wins, not discretionary.¹³

Deadlines to Track

60 days to file the initial complaint with DOL after the alleged violation.⁷
60 days for DOL to investigate and attempt resolution.
15 days to appeal to the MSPB after receiving DOL’s closing notice.⁹
61 days after the DOL filing is the earliest a veteran can appeal to the MSPB if no notice arrives, and only after written notification to the Secretary of Labor.
60 days to seek Federal Circuit review after the MSPB’s final order.

Every one of these windows is tight. The 15-day MSPB clock after DOL notification is the one veterans most often blow past. Track each deadline from the day you file and treat the calendar as fixed.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Special Hiring Authorities for Veterans
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 2108 – Veteran; Disabled Veteran; Preference Eligible
3
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Are the Criteria for VEOA Eligibility?
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 3304 – Competitive Service; Examinations
5
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Vet Guide for HR Professionals
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Veterans’ Preference Advisor – P.L. 105-339
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 3330a – Preference Eligibles; Administrative Redress
8
eCFR. 5 CFR 1208.21 – VEOA Exhaustion Requirement
9
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 1208 – Practices and Procedures for USERRA and VEOA Appeals
10
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Veterans’ Employment Redress Laws in the Federal Civil Service
11
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Final Order – Christopher A. Finger v. Department of the Air Force
12
GovInfo. 5 USC 3330c – Preference Eligibles; Remedy
13
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 1208 – Practices and Procedures for USERRA and VEOA Appeals – Section: 1208.25