External applicants may claim veterans’ preference when they apply for a vacancy. Five or 10 points are added to the passing examination score or rating of an eligible who claims veterans’ preference. Veterans’ preference points are not added to ineligible (non-passing) examination scores.
Thus, veterans’ preference affects the applicant’s ranking relative to other applicants for the same vacancy, but does not convert a non-passing score to a passing score. To efficiently process applications, veterans’ preference is adjudicated as early in the sequence of activities as possible when processing an external vacancy.
