Foreign Service Specialist Appointment Selection (FSSAS)

Foreign Service Specialist Assessment Appointments – Case Management Exercise (CME)

All Office Management Specialist and Information Management Specialist candidates invited to advance to the next Specialist Assessment stage of the Foreign Service hiring process will start by scheduling their CME.

Please carefully review all information provided to decide whether to take the CME in person at a Pearson VUE Test Center or on your own personal computer via Pearson VUE’s OnVUE system.

As instructed in your invitation letter, you must start by creating a new account using the information in the invitation letter, even if you have an existing Pearson VUE account. You must schedule your CME for one of the dates offered within the 30-day window – the Authorized Dates - specified in your original invitation letter. We cannot guarantee an alternative assessment date outside of the specified range of Authorized Dates unless there are emergency or compelling extenuating circumstances. Within two weeks of completing your CME, you will receive an invitation from SpecialistScheduling@state.gov to schedule the final stage of the Specialist Assessment process, the Structured Interview.

Reasonable Accommodation:

If you require a new* reasonable accommodation based on a disability per the Rehabilitation Act for the CME, you must submit your request to the Pearson VUE Accommodations Portal no later than two weeks before your desired CME date. You may not schedule your CME until your accommodation request has been approved. Please go to the test accommodations page for further instructions on how to submit your accommodation request for the CME.

* Candidates with a current, approved accommodation request registered in the Pearson VUE Accommodations Portal do not need to submit a new application, but they will need to contact Pearson VUE Accommodations at 1-800-486-0450 to schedule their appointment and specify that they are in the Foreign Service Specialist Appointment System (FSSAS) process.

  

Plagiarism & AI Policy

  • The Department of State reserves the right to cancel and/or disqualify a candidate’s application or to withhold test results when, in its judgment, a testing irregularity occurs.  Testing irregularities include, but are not limited to, candidate misconduct, plagiarism, and/or misrepresentation of material fact, including in narrative descriptions of accomplishments.  The Department may verify content provided by candidates by contacting references.  It also conducts extensive background checks of work and education history of candidates offered employment.

To Learn More:

Please visit careers.state.gov for more information on the Foreign Service and the Specialist selection process.

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Last updated 2025-05-07