EFM employment, explained: every way a Foreign Service family member can work at post

Your partner's bid list just came back with a post on it, and the first question in the car home is "what will I do there?" The State Department's own count says that in spring 2026 only 18% of adult family members overseas worked inside the mission, 21% worked outside it, and 61% weren't employed at all. This guide walks through every way an eligible family member (EFM) can work at post, who qualifies for each, and what to do in which order.

Quick note: this is our personal blog, not the State Department, and it isn't legal, tax or career advice. Everything in this guide and the finder comes from publicly available information, listed at the end; rules change, and the human resources (HR) officer at post always has the current answer. If you spot an error in the guide or the finder, please email us at myforeignservicepal@gmail.com.

The short version

There are seven ways to work from post: a job inside the embassy or consulate, a professional-level embassy job through EPAP, a mission job under a personal services agreement, keeping your own federal job through a DETO arrangement, teleworking for any other employer, a job on the local economy under a work agreement, or your own business. Which doors open depends on three things: whether you're a U.S. citizen on the orders, whether the host country has a work agreement, and how soon you need income. Everything outside the mission needs the chief of mission's approval before you start, and that includes telework.

First, which kind of family member are you?

The Foreign Affairs Manual sorts family members into labels, and the labels decide which jobs you can be hired for. An appointment eligible family member (AEFM) is a U.S. citizen spouse or domestic partner of the employee who is listed on the travel orders (or an approved OF-126) and lives at post, and the Family Member Appointment, the standard embassy job, is open only to AEFMs. An eligible family member (EFM) who isn't a U.S. citizen is on the orders too and can apply for mission jobs, but doesn't get the hiring preference and can't take a Family Member Appointment. A member of household (MOH) is someone the chief of mission has approved to live with the employee without being on the orders, such as a parent, an adult child over 21, or a partner who isn't on the orders.

Keep your label in mind as you read. The embassy jobs in the next sections are for AEFMs. Non-citizen EFMs and MOHs can still be hired at the mission under a personal services agreement where the post and local law allow it, and the outside-the-mission options are open to most people, with conditions. Members of household aren't covered by work agreements and arrange their own work permits.

Partners are where people slip. A U.S. citizen domestic partner, as the Department defines it in 3 FAM 1610, who is listed on the travel orders or an approved OF-126 counts like a spouse for embassy jobs (Family Member Appointments, EPAP, the reserve corps). A partner who isn't listed is a member of household: no hiring preference and no Family Member Appointment. Some work agreements cover same-sex domestic partners and some don't, so ask HR at post.

Dual nationals should check one more thing. If you're also a citizen of the host country, GCLO says to ask HR before you apply, because that citizenship can change how you're accredited, hired and taxed, even for an embassy job.

Where family members actually work

Twice a year GCLO (the Global Community Liaison Office, the Department's office for family members) asks every post to count its adult family members and how they're employed. The result is the Family Member Employment Report, or FAMER. The spring 2026 report covers 223 posts and 11,899 adult family members.

Spring 2026	Family members	Share
Employed inside the mission	2,195	18%
Employed outside the mission	2,439	21%
Not employed	7,265	61%

Outside the mission, telework for an outside employer is by far the biggest group at 1,059 people, then jobs on the local economy at 574, DETO arrangements at 380 and home businesses at 341. The remaining 85 are people working for an employee recreation association, commuting back to a job in the United States, or working as Diplomatic Security investigators.

Two things in the trend are worth knowing before you plan. Inside-the-mission jobs fell by a third between spring 2024 and spring 2026, from 3,283 to 2,195, and have only partly recovered since the low point of 1,949 in fall 2025. And in both of the latest reports more family members worked outside the mission than inside it, a reversal from fall 2020, when 26% worked inside and 15% outside.

The share also depends on where you go. In spring 2026, 48% of adult family members at posts in the Africa bureau were working and 47% in South and Central Asia, against 37% in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

Sort the options for your situation

The finder below asks up to six short questions, one at a time, starting with the country of your post, which it checks against the State Department's list of work agreements. It then lists every option that fits, each with its first steps and who to ask, folds the ones with a catch into short rows, and hides the ones that don't fit. It doesn't rank them: which path suits you is your call. Nothing you pick leaves the page.

Inside the mission: the Family Member Appointment

Most embassy jobs for family members are Family Member Appointments (FMAs): five-year, non-career federal appointments open to AEFMs. They come with health and life insurance, retirement credit, the Thrift Savings Plan and annual and sick leave. Most are administrative support jobs (office management, consular assistance, community liaison, security escort, mailroom, nursing, facilities), and a small share carry more responsibility.

Posts hire in a set order: AEFMs who are also veterans with preference first, then other AEFMs, then Foreign Service employees on leave without pay and civil servants with reemployment rights. Vacancies go out through the Electronic Recruitment Application (ERA) linked from every embassy website, and through the CLO newsletter.

Two things slow this path down. Most of these jobs, though not all, need a security clearance, the investigation can't start until you've been given a conditional offer, and GCLO says there's no set timeframe for how long it takes, so count on months between applying and your first day. Recent naturalization, foreign ties and years lived abroad can stretch the investigation. Hiring also depends on what's vacant at your post that year, and the 2024 to 2026 fall in the numbers above means fewer openings than families saw a few years ago.

The payoff lasts longer than the job. After 52 weeks of service in an appropriated-fund job overseas, with a fully successful rating, you earn noncompetitive eligibility (NCE) under Executive Order 12721, which lets a federal agency in the United States hire you without the usual competition for three years after you move back.

If your job ends because the family transfers, you can usually claim unemployment compensation for federal employees (UCFE) once you're back in the United States, through the state you live in, with the SF-8 and SF-50 that HR gives you when you leave. Print your first and last SF-50s and your last signed evaluation from eOPF before you lose access, and ask HR for an NCE verification letter during check-out. An evacuation doesn't start the three-year clock; your sponsor's move back to a U.S. assignment does. If you stay in the reserve corps between jobs you're still on State's rolls, so you may need to resign from it before you can claim unemployment.

What an embassy job pays

GCLO's guide to the FAMER says positions inside the mission usually run from FP-09 to FP-03, with the average job at FP-07. Family member jobs are paid on the overseas Foreign Service scale, which adds overseas comparability pay to base pay (22.62% in 2026). On that scale FP-07 runs from $53,392 at step 1 to $78,408 at step 14, and you can see every grade on our pay scale page with the overseas option.

Two surprises catch people. Your grade follows the job, so moving to a post whose only vacancy is graded lower can mean a pay cut even with years of experience, and EPAP jobs, graded on your education and experience, are the exception. And you don't get your own post allowance or differential, because your sponsor's allowances already cover the household; GCLO's EPAP page says danger pay, where it applies, is the only payment authorized, with no cost of living allowance, post differential or education allowance on top.

Inside the mission: EPAP and the other programs

The Expanded Professional Associates Program (EPAP) fills centrally funded professional jobs at posts with AEFMs: economics, facilities management, financial management, general services, human resources, information management, medical, management, office management, political and public diplomacy work. Grades run from FP-07 to FP-01 and are set by your education and experience. Applications run once a year through a single USAJOBS announcement for the positions listed at your sponsor's post; the 2026 round ran from August 14 to 28, and GCLO posts the next dates on its EPAP page. You don't need a clearance to apply, but you must be able to get the one the job needs within nine months, nothing can be added to an application after the window closes, and anyone newly hired on an FMA or personal services agreement has to wait 90 days before applying, so treat EPAP as a plan for next year.

Two smaller programs are worth knowing. The Professional Associates hard-to-fill round fills specific vacancies, with responsibilities comparable to mid-level Foreign Service jobs; it's normally announced by cable in the spring, and the 2026 round covered only information technology and office management jobs. The Consular Affairs AEFM program takes family members aged 21 and over through the Board of Examiners assessment and a Top Secret clearance, a six-to-twelve-month process, and puts them on a register for consular jobs at whichever post their sponsor goes to next; it's open year-round. The CLO coordinator job itself is a family member position at most posts.

A mission job without U.S. citizenship

If you're not a U.S. citizen, or you're a member of household rather than on the orders, you can't take an FMA, but the post may hire you under a personal services agreement (PSA). Depending on your status, you're paid on the U.S. pay plan or the post's local compensation plan; either way you earn no federal retirement credit. Ask which clearance level a job needs: non-U.S. citizens can fill non-sensitive, low-risk public trust positions. PSAs are also how other agencies at the mission, such as DHS, DOJ and HHS, hire family members, and how anyone drawing a federal retirement annuity is hired.

Neither group gets the hiring preference, which goes to U.S. citizen family members and veterans, and some jobs are open to U.S. citizens only. If you're a citizen of the host country, the mission hires you as local staff. Whether a given job is open to you depends on local labor law and your own right to work in the country, so start with the HR officer.

DETO: bring your federal job with you

If you already hold a U.S. federal job, your agency may let you keep doing it from post under a Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas (DETO) agreement. It's a discretionary arrangement, never an entitlement: your supervisor and agency have to agree in writing, the chief of mission has to approve, and the agreement ends with your spouse's first tour at that post unless it's amended and approved again. DETOs aren't allowed at unaccompanied posts, at partially unaccompanied posts that don't already admit adult family members, or while an authorized or ordered departure is in effect, and a DETO draws no allowances in their own right.

Some jobs can't go overseas at all. State's rules (3 FAM 2370, updated May 2026) rule out political appointees, Foreign Service officers on Y tours, and any job that reports on or works on the host country's issues; jobs that need regular classified access are generally ruled out too. Either side can end the agreement with two pay periods' notice, you work U.S. holidays, and you work or take leave on local ones.

Your pay changes too. A Foreign Service DETO is paid on the overseas Foreign Service scale; a civil servant gets the lower of their old U.S. locality pay or the overseas rate, which is 22.62% on top of base pay in 2026, so run the change through our Salary Calculator with the DETO option before you decide. GCLO says to allow three to six months, so start the conversation with your supervisor the week the post is assigned.

State's own policy desk is DETOPolicy@state.gov. A DETO has to be on the sponsoring employee's travel orders: State doesn't allow DETOs for anyone who isn't, so a member of household can't use this path at State.

If the DETO doesn't come through and you have to resign, ask HR to note on your separation SF-50 that you're leaving to accompany your spouse overseas. If you don't yet have career tenure, your three-year window for reinstatement is then extended for the time you're abroad and starts again when you move back (5 CFR 315.401); with tenure there's no time limit anyway. Your earlier service can also still count toward tenure if you leave no more than 90 days before going overseas and are reinstated while overseas or within 180 days of moving back.

Telework for someone else

Teleworking for a U.S. or other employer is the single most common way family members work overseas, with 1,059 people counted in spring 2026. The ingredients are an employer that will keep you on payroll while you live abroad, a time zone you can work across, and the post's approval. Employers worry about host-country tax, labor law and data rules, so ask early and offer a written plan, and expect some companies to say no to anyone outside the United States.

Three things people learn the hard way. First, telework from post counts as outside employment, so it needs the chief of mission's approval through HR before your first day, the same as a local job.

Second, the host country may see it as local work. GCLO's test for a U.S. employer: you keep a U.S. address of record, you're paid in dollars into a U.S. bank account on the employer's U.S. payroll, you work from your residence rather than a local office, and you don't do business locally or employ anyone. Even then, some countries treat work done on their soil as local work that needs a permit and local tax, and working from embassy housing doesn't count as working on U.S. soil. GCLO says it can't tell you which countries do this; the consular section's list of local attorneys is the place to start.

Third, your state taxes, the foreign earned income exclusion and any host-country tax all change when your desk moves, so talk to a tax preparer who knows expatriate returns before the first paycheck.

A job on the local economy

By default a diplomatic family can't work for a local employer: the privileges and immunities that come with your status cut both ways. A bilateral work agreement (BWA) is a formal agreement between the United States and a host country, made by an exchange of diplomatic notes, that lets spouses and dependent children on the orders apply for permission to work on the local economy, in both directions. Where there's no agreement, some countries have a de facto arrangement, which means they've issued work permits to family members before and may do it again, case by case.

GCLO keeps the list of bilateral work agreements and de facto work arrangements and says the United States has agreements with 130 countries and de facto arrangements with 32 more. No two agreements are alike. Some carry conditions the list marks with footnotes: an offer of employment in hand before the permit (Colombia, India, Italy, Jamaica, North Macedonia and Turkey), a cap on how many family members can work (the Bahamas, Barbados and Greece), or restricted fields (Turkey). Under most agreements you can apply for the permit before you have a job and your citizenship doesn't matter; under a de facto arrangement you need the job offer first and U.S. citizenship is usually required.

The lookup in the finder above reads the same list, and if you're weighing several posts, myBidPal shows the work agreement status for each one when you pick "Work for family members" as a priority. Big posts with no agreement listed include China, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Qatar, while Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are on the de facto list rather than the treaty list.

Then the process: you can apply for a work permit once your sponsor is accredited by the host government, which GCLO says usually happens two to three weeks after arrival; you get the chief of mission's approval, HR at post handles the paperwork with the host government, and you wait. GCLO also says agreements must give family members a reasonable chance at local jobs and a reasonable processing time, since most families stay only two or three years. For that work you give up civil and administrative immunity in matters arising from the job and you pay host-country tax on the earnings. The State Department's own wording is blunt: family members who work on the local economy without authorization "are probably working illegally and may be putting themselves and their missions at risk."

Your own business from post

Home businesses were the fourth-largest group in the spring 2026 report, with 341 family members, and they're the most portable path: a coaching practice, a bookkeeping client list or an online shop moves with you. The approvals are the same as any outside work. Get the chief of mission's sign-off through HR first, check the post's rules on running a business from government housing, and separate your clients into two groups: U.S. clients you serve online, and local clients, who usually need the host country's permission even where there's a work agreement.

Don't use the pouch or DPO for the business: 3 FAM 4123 bars using official mail for transactions without authorization. Serving as an officer, director or trustee of a private organization needs the chief of mission's and an ethics official's approval too.

Keep the tax side simple from day one. Self-employment tax follows you everywhere, your state may still consider you a resident, and a local business registration can create a local tax filing. One honest conversation with a tax preparer before you invoice anyone is cheaper than untangling it later.

The rule everyone forgets: approval first

Every outside-the-mission option above, including telework, teaching at the international school and your own business, needs the chief of mission's approval before you start. The rule is 3 FAM 4125, under which a family member may take outside work unless it would break the host country's law, would need a waiver of immunity the chief of mission finds too broad, or could damage U.S. interests, and GCLO's page says it's "critical for eligible family members (EFMs) to seek chief of mission approval whenever a family member considers working outside the mission."

The same goes for significant volunteer work on the local economy. In practice this is one form, the Outside the Mission action memo, which HR at post gives you and routes for signature. The FAM text itself, unchanged since 2003, only says to notify the administrative officer before you accept; GCLO's current pages require the approval, and the FAM often lags behind policy, so treat it as an approval. Skipping it turns an ordinary job into a problem for you and the mission.

Taxes, briefly

U.S. citizens report their worldwide income whatever country the paycheck comes from. Pay from the U.S. government, including FMA, PSA and DETO pay, is taxed like any federal salary and doesn't qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. Wages from a local employer, a private telework employer or your own business may qualify for the exclusion, which is $132,900 for 2026, if you meet the physical presence or bona fide residence test, but the IRS says you can't be a bona fide resident of a country you've told you're not a resident of, which describes most diplomatic family members, and your state may keep taxing you too. None of this should stop you working; it should send you to a preparer who handles expatriate returns.

Where things stand in late 2026

A federal hiring freeze began on January 20, 2025, was extended to July 15 and then October 15, 2025, and was replaced that day by an executive order that keeps vacant positions closed unless an agency's hiring committee approves them, with no end date. Family Member Appointments were covered.

In July 2025 one news outlet reported an internal State memo letting posts refill jobs vacated by family members with other family members, without creating new ones; in November 2025 AFSA still described EFM hiring as frozen along with the rest of the government. By 2026 the machinery was turning again: the EPAP round ran in August, the reserve corps opened enrollment in October, and the number of family members working inside missions rose from 1,949 to 2,195 between the two latest reports. The reports themselves give no reason for the fall or the recovery, and neither do we.

Help that already exists

GCLO's Global Employment Initiative puts 20 Global Employment Advisors across more than 200 posts to coach family members and members of household for free: resumes, remote job searches, interview practice and plans for the next post. Write to GEI@state.gov or ask the CLO which advisor covers you. The Network, GCLO's free weekly email of Washington-area and remote jobs, is open to family members anywhere, and the CLO coordinator at post knows which jobs turn over and who to ask.

Two programs are worth a calendar reminder. The first is the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps (FSFRC) is an unpaid standing appointment for AEFMs that keeps your clearance current between jobs so the next post can hire you faster; most people join when the quarterly enrollment opens on USAJOBS (the latest ran October 15 to 28, 2026), so missing one window isn't fatal, and anyone already working on an FMA or temporary appointment can join any time with form DS-5137.

The second is GCLO's Professional Development Fellowship, which pays $1,000 to $2,500 toward a course or certification, with you funding at least a quarter, so the project has to cost at least $1,334. Applications open each September, the course has to start on or after January 1 and finish by July 31 with no exceptions, the payment is nontaxable, and the 2027 round has already closed. And AAFSW and AFSA both publish family member employment resources and speak up for EFM hiring in Washington.

A timeline that works

Six months before you move, ask the CLO for your post's FAMER (it lists every family member job as filled, pending or vacant, and says whether the country has a work agreement), look the country up in the finder above, and talk to your current employer about telework or, if you're a federal employee, a DETO. Three months out, get your resume into federal format, build a USAJOBS profile, and gather what a clearance will ask for: ten years of addresses, the names and numbers of neighbors at each one, and every school you attended. In your first month at post, meet the HR officer, submit the outside employment action memo for anything you plan to do, apply for the embassy jobs that fit, and book a session with the Global Employment Advisor for your region.

Quick answers

What does EFM stand for, and am I one?

EFM means eligible family member: a spouse or dependent child listed on a Foreign Service employee's travel orders, of any citizenship. A U.S. citizen spouse or domestic partner who lives at post is also an appointment eligible family member (AEFM), which is what most embassy jobs require.

What do all the acronyms mean?

AEFM is a U.S. citizen spouse or domestic partner at post, who can take a Family Member Appointment (FMA). An MOH is a member of household, approved to live at post without being on the orders. A PSA is a personal services agreement, the local-pay-plan hire for non-citizens and MOHs.

EPAP is the Expanded Professional Associates Program, DETO is a Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas arrangement, a BWA is a bilateral work agreement, NCE is noncompetitive eligibility for federal jobs after overseas service, the FSFRC is the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps, GEA is a Global Employment Advisor, and the FAMER is the Family Member Employment Report. The CLO is the Community Liaison Office at post and GCLO is its parent office in Washington.

How many EFMs have jobs?

In the spring 2026 Family Member Employment Report, 39% of the 11,899 adult family members overseas were employed: 18% inside the mission and 21% outside it. The other 61% weren't employed, a group that includes people who chose not to work.

Can I work on the local economy at my post?

Only where the host country allows it. If the country has a bilateral work agreement you can apply for a work permit through HR at post; if it has a de facto arrangement, permits have been issued before and you'll need a job offer first; if it isn't on the list, ask HR anyway, but plan around the other options. Use the finder above or the State Department's list to check.

Do I need permission to telework for my U.S. employer from post?

Yes. Telework counts as outside employment, so it needs the chief of mission's approval through HR before you start, and some host countries treat it as local work that needs a permit and local tax.

What is DETO?

DETO is a Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas arrangement: a written agreement that lets a U.S. federal employee keep their job and do it from post, with their agency's and the chief of mission's approval, at the DETO overseas pay rate.

How much does an embassy job pay?

The average family member job is graded FP-07, which in 2026 runs from $53,392 to $78,408 on the overseas pay scale, depending on step. Grades go with the job rather than the person, so pay can drop at the next post.

How long does an embassy job take to get?

Plan on months. You apply when a vacancy opens, the post selects, and the security clearance investigation only starts after a conditional offer. Starting your paperwork and your resume before you arrive is the biggest time saver.

Who do I ask about what?

The HR officer at post handles vacancies, hiring, the outside employment memo and work permits. The CLO coordinator knows what's coming open and has the FAMER. The Global Employment Advisor for your region coaches you on the search itself. Your own agency's HR handles a DETO, and GCLOAskEmployment@state.gov answers what post can't.

Does working at the embassy help me get a job when we return?

Yes. After 52 weeks (or 2,087 hours on a temporary appointment) in a Family Member Appointment with a fully successful rating, you have noncompetitive eligibility for federal jobs for three years after your sponsor's move back to the United States, and at State you can use it more than once in that window.

Where I got this

1. Worldwide Family Member Employment Overview, Spring 2026 (GCLO, revised July 14, 2026): population, employment status, the outside-the-mission breakdown and the bureau table (accessed November 1, 2026).
2. Worldwide Family Member Employment Overview, Fall 2025 (GCLO, revised July 9, 2026): the fall 2025 figures and the inside-the-mission series back to 2021 (accessed November 1, 2026). The fall 2020 split comes from GCLO's Fall 2020 overview.
3. List of Bilateral Work Agreements and de facto Work Arrangements (GCLO): the countries, the footnoted conditions, the disclaimer and the wording on working without authorization (page dated October 26, 2026; read October 30, 2026).
4. Bilateral Work Agreements and de facto Work Arrangements (GCLO explainer) and the GCLO employment FAQ: the 130 and 32 counts, job offer and citizenship rules, immunity and local taxes, hiring preference, clearances, the Electronic Recruitment Application (page updated October 2, 2026; read in full November 1, 2026).
5. Family Member Employment within a U.S. Embassy or Consulate (GCLO), with its EPAP, Professional Associates hard-to-fill and Consular Affairs AEFM pages: the Family Member Appointment, the hiring order, program rules and 2026 dates (page updated October 2, 2026; read in full November 1, 2026).
6. Family Member Employment Overseas Outside the Mission and Telework Overseas Guidance for Family Members (GCLO): the action memo, the 3 FAM 4125 conditions, the telework test (page updated October 2, 2026; read in full November 1, 2026).
7. Transitioning from the Civil Service to Overseas (GCLO), OPM's overseas telework page and OPM's DETO locality pay fact sheet: DETO approvals, limits, lead time and the 22.62% rate (the GCLO page updated October 2, 2026; all read November 1, 2026).
8. Non-Competitive Eligibility (GCLO) and 5 CFR 315.608: the 52-week rule, the three-year window, evacuation and repeat use (page updated October 2, 2026).
9. Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps, Global Employment Initiative, The Network and Professional Development Fellowship (GCLO): program rules, 2026 dates and amounts (page updated October 2, 2026; read in full November 1, 2026).
10. Guide to Reading the FAMER (GCLO): the FP-09 to FP-03 range and the FP-07 average; our 2026 pay table for the dollar figures.
11. Department of Labor UCFE fact sheet and 20 CFR 609.8: where a former overseas employee files, and the SF-8 and SF-50.
12. IRS: foreign earned income exclusion, bona fide residence test and IR-2025-103: U.S. government pay excluded, the residence statement rule, the $132,900 figure for 2026.
13. 22 U.S.C. 2699: the statute behind 3 FAM 4125.
14. Foreign Affairs Manual, read in full November 1, 2026: 3 FAM 7120 (definitions of AEFM, EFM and USEFM, the FMA and temporary appointments; updated September 11, 2026), 3 FAM 4120 (4125 on outside employment, unchanged since 2003; 4123 on official mail and private boards) and 3 FAM 2370 (DETO eligibility, duration, pay and holidays; updated May 6, 2026). The FAM can lag behind current policy, so where it and GCLO's 2026 pages differ we follow GCLO.
15. EFM and MOH Comparison Chart (GCLO, October 2026): who gets the hiring preference, and employment at post for each kind of family member.
16. The hiring freeze: the January 20, 2025 OMB and OPM guidance, the April 17, 2025 extension, OPM's July 2025 extension FAQ and Executive Order 14356 of October 15, 2025; the reported July 2025 family member exemption is from The Daily Wire, July 15, 2025, a single secondary source; AFSA's status line is on its member resources page (updated November 5, 2025).
17. Background reading we found useful: Donna Gorman, "Family Member Job Hunting After the Pandemic", Foreign Service Journal, September 2023, and Jonathan Geense, "Merit Pay for Family Member Employees", same issue, on why pay drops between posts.