The U.S. Department of State strongly encourages candidates to use a personal email address to which they will have regular, long-term access throughout the hiring process. Please consider this carefully before using a .edu or other email that may be attached to any current student or employee roles. Please also note the Department of State will communicate with candidates via the email address they provide at the time of original application and failure to respond by established deadlines may result in the Department of State discontinuing a candidate’s application. Candidates who are current U.S. government employees may not use their U.S. government email addresses for the Foreign Service application, testing, and assessment process.
Plagiarism & AI Policy
- The Department of State prohibits candidates from plagiarizing any portion of their employment application materials to include responses to questions in which candidates must provide a narrative response. Candidates must create their own responses originally and not copy or adapt them from other sources. The Department analyzes candidate submissions for plagiarism and will discontinue any individual’s candidacy if found to have violated this plagiarism policy.
- While the Department of State encourages candidates to create their narratives with great care, including correct use of grammar and style, candidates are prohibited from using any artificial intelligence (AI) tool, to include but not limited to ChatGPT, to aid in their written responses. The Department will discontinue any individual’s candidacy if found to have violated this prohibition on use of AI tools in the application process.
AUTHORITIES: The information is sought pursuant to 301(b) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, as amended (22 U.S.C. § 3941(b)).
PURPOSE: The information solicited on this form will be used to determine eligibility to take the Foreign Service Officer Test, to register for the Foreign Service Officer Test, to assess qualifications for selection as a Foreign Service Officer, and to ensure the integrity of the examination process.
ROUTINE USES: The information solicited on this form may be made available to prepare statistical reports and analyses at the Department of State. Such reports and analyses, which are prepared in such a way that they are not individually identifiable, may be shared outside the Department. This information may also be shared with other federal agencies in response to request for information about hiring or retention of an employee or to Members of Congress in response to an inquiry on behalf of the applicant. More information on the Routine Uses for the system can be found in the System of Records Notice State-31, Human Resource Records.
DISCLOSURE: Providing this information is voluntary. Failure to provide the information requested on this form may result in the user’s inability to submit appropriate responses to the FSOT questionnaire and/or the FSOT and oral exam.