You have a req open. The cert is taking weeks. The competitive process is slow. And the veteran you want to hire is about to take another offer. This is the seam the Veterans Recruitment Appointment was built for.

The VRA is a federal hiring authority. It lets a federal agency appoint an eligible veteran without running the full competitive process. No public vacancy announcement is required. No competitive rating and ranking. You appoint a qualified veteran straight into the role, up to the GS-11 level or equivalent.

This guide is written for the hiring side of the table. If you are a federal agency hiring official, a hiring manager, or HR staff at a federal contractor working a federal req, this is your playbook. We will cover who qualifies, what the grade ceiling is, the two-year conversion rule, and the steps to actually use it. We will also point you to where the veteran candidates are.

One note before we start. This article is for employers. If you are a veteran trying to use the VRA to get hired, read our VRA guide for federal job seekers instead. Same authority, different side of the desk.

What Is the Veterans Recruitment Appointment?

The VRA is an excepted-service appointing authority. That means the position sits outside the normal competitive service rules for hiring. You do not have to post the job to the public. You do not have to score and rank a pool of applicants.

The Office of Personnel Management describes the VRA as a tool that lets a manager fill positions quickly. You appoint an eligible veteran who is qualified for the role. You can do this up to and including the GS-11 grade or equivalent.

Here is the part that matters most to you. The clock. A normal competitive hire can take months. The cert process, the rating panel, the ranking, the public posting window. All of it adds time. The VRA cuts most of that out. You find a qualified veteran, confirm eligibility, and appoint.

Who Qualifies for a VRA Appointment?

Not every veteran is VRA eligible. The authority is narrow on purpose. A veteran has to fall into one of a few groups. OPM lays out the categories.

You can appoint a veteran who falls into any one of these:

One rule runs across all four groups. The separation has to be under honorable conditions. That means an honorable or a general discharge. The veteran's DD-214 confirms this. Ask for the Member 4 copy during the offer stage.

Eligibility can get into the weeds. Campaign badges and service medals are specific. If you are unsure whether a candidate fits a category, your servicing HR office or the agency's veterans employment program manager can confirm it. Do not guess on eligibility. Get it confirmed before you appoint.

What Is the Grade Ceiling on a VRA?

The VRA tops out at GS-11 or the equivalent. You can use it for any grade up to that line. A GS-5 admin role. A GS-9 analyst. A GS-11 specialist. All fair game if the veteran is qualified for the work.

Above GS-11, the VRA does not apply. For higher-graded roles, you go back to the competitive process or another authority. So think of the VRA as your fast lane for entry and mid-level positions. That covers a huge share of what most agencies hire for.

There is a condition worth knowing that applies at any grade. Under 5 CFR 307.104(b), if a VRA appointee has fewer than 15 years of education, the agency must provide a training or education program prescribed by the agency. This is tied to the veteran's educational background, not to the grade level of the position. Your HR office can confirm whether it applies to a given appointment. Build that into the plan before the appointment, not after.

How Does the Two-Year Conversion Rule Work?

The VRA is not meant to be a permanent excepted appointment. It is a path into the competitive service. The conversion is the key feature.

Here is the rule. After the veteran satisfactorily completes 2 years of substantially continuous service, you must convert the appointment. The conversion is noncompetitive. It moves the veteran to a career or career-conditional appointment. This is set in 5 CFR 307.103.

So the VRA gets the veteran in fast. The two years act as a working trial. If they perform, they convert to permanent status without competing again. That is a strong retention story for the candidate, and a clean pipeline for you.

Watch one trap. You can also use the VRA to fill temporary or term positions. A temporary VRA runs up to 1 year. A term VRA runs more than 1 year but not more than 4. Veterans in those temporary or term VRA slots do not convert to the competitive service after 2 years. If your goal is a permanent hire and a conversion, appoint to a permanent position from the start.

How Do You Actually Use the VRA to Hire?

The authority is only useful if you run the steps cleanly. Here is the path from open req to appointment.

The slowest part of this is usually step 2. Finding a qualified veteran who fits a category and wants the role. The authority is fast. The sourcing is the bottleneck. That is where most agencies lose time.

Why Does the VRA Beat the Standard Process on Speed?

Time-to-hire is the whole game in federal recruiting. A great candidate sitting in a slow process is a candidate you will lose. Other employers move faster. Private sector offers land in days.

The standard competitive process has real friction. You post the job. You wait out the window. You rate and rank the pool. You build the cert. Each step adds weeks. None of it is wasted, but all of it is slow.

The VRA strips the friction for the right candidate. No public posting. No rating panel. No ranking. You confirm qualifications and eligibility, then appoint. For a hiring official racing another offer, that gap is the difference between a hire and a miss.

The VRA is also one of several special authorities for veterans. The 30% or more disabled veteran authority is a separate path with its own rules. So is the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act for some announcements. The point is you have options. The VRA is the fastest one for entry and mid-level roles up to GS-11.

Where Do You Find VRA-Eligible Veterans?

The VRA only works if you have qualified veterans to appoint. Sourcing is where the speed advantage gets won or lost. You need a pool of veteran candidates you can reach fast.

Start with the obvious channels. Base transition offices. Veteran service organizations. SkillBridge interns already working in your agency. A SkillBridge intern is a working tryout. You see the veteran perform before any commitment, then you can appoint. Read our guide on converting a SkillBridge intern into a full-time hire for that play.

You also want a standing pool you can search on demand. Job fairs and one-off events are slow and one-time. A candidate database you can search by skill, role, and clearance is a steadier source. That is what BMR provides on the employer side. We have over 1,000 new profiles added every month, drawn from more than 60,000 resumes built on the platform.

Many of those candidates are eligible for VRA or another veteran authority. They are recently separated, disabled, or served in qualifying campaigns. You can reach them while the role is fresh and the authority is open.

If you also hire cleared talent, the overlap is strong. Many VRA-eligible veterans hold or recently held a clearance. See our guides on finding cleared veteran talent for defense roles and how government contractors hire cleared veterans.

How Do You Screen a VRA Candidate's Resume?

VRA skips the competitive ranking. It does not skip your judgment. You still have to confirm the veteran is qualified for the work. The resume is where you start.

Federal applicant tracking systems like USA Staffing rack and stack resumes by keyword match. Weak matches sink to the bottom. They do not get auto-rejected, but they do not surface either. A veteran with the right experience and the wrong words can look unqualified at a glance. That is a translation gap, not a skill gap.

Read past the military terms. A "supply NCO" ran logistics and inventory. A "platoon sergeant" managed people, training, and equipment accountability. Match the work to your qualification standards, not the job title. Our guide to evaluating a veteran's resume walks through this, and the recruiter screening checklist gives you a repeatable scan.

For the difference between excepted and competitive service, and what it means for the candidate after conversion, our excepted vs competitive service guide covers it from the veteran's view. Worth a read so you can answer their questions in the offer stage.

Make the VRA Work for Your Agency

The VRA is one of the cleanest tools in federal hiring. It lets you appoint a qualified, eligible veteran up to GS-11 without a public posting or a competitive panel. After two years of good service, the appointment converts to permanent status. Fast in, clear path forward.

The authority is not the hard part. Your HR office runs the paperwork. The hard part is having qualified veterans in front of you when the role is open. That is a sourcing problem, and it is the one you can solve ahead of time.

BMR keeps a growing pool of veteran candidates on the employer side. Over 1,000 new profiles added every month, from more than 60,000 resumes built on the platform. You can search by role, skill, and background, and reach veterans while your req is still warm.

Ready to put VRA-eligible veterans in your pipeline? Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start sourcing for your open roles.