Your federal probationary period in 2026: the new rules explained

If you started a federal job in the last year or so, the rules for your first year are not the ones your colleagues went through. Until 2025 a probationary period ended quietly: if nobody acted, you became a tenured employee on your anniversary. That default has been reversed. Now, if nobody acts, your employment ends.

This guide is for new federal hires, people weighing a federal offer, and clinicians starting at VA who want to know what the first one or two years actually involve. It explains the rule, shows you how to work out your own dates, lists what to do during the year, and sets out the narrow appeal rights that took effect on 2 September 2026.

What changed, and when

The change came in four steps, each published in the Federal Register. Knowing which step applies to you matters, because people appointed at different times are treated differently.

• 24 April 2025: Executive Order 14284, Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service, created a new Civil Service Rule XI, now 5 CFR part 11, and declared the old probation regulations in 5 CFR part 315, subpart H, inoperative.
• 24 June 2025: OPM published a final rule formally rescinding subpart H and making conforming amendments.
• 23 July 2025: the certification requirement in Rule 11.5 took effect, 90 days after the order was signed. OPM’s guidance applies it to employees whose probationary or trial periods end on or after that date.
• 2 September 2026: an OPM final rule, published 3 August 2026, created a new, limited OPM appeal and wrote the order’s review steps into the regulation.

How long is your probationary or trial period?

Rule XI uses two words for the same idea. A probationary period applies in the competitive service; a trial period applies in the excepted service. The length depends on which service you were appointed to and whether you have veterans’ preference.

• Competitive service, career or career-conditional appointment: the first year. This covers most people hired from a certificate of eligibles, and people converted or appointed under a special authority unless that authority exempts them.
• Excepted service, preference eligible: the first year of continuous service in the same or similar position.
• Excepted service, not preference eligible: the first two years of continuous service in the same or similar position.
• VA clinicians appointed under title 38, section 7401(1) — physicians, dentists, registered nurses and the other listed occupations: two years, set by statute in 38 U.S.C. 7403(b). For registered nurses the two years apply whether the appointment is full time or part time.
• First-time supervisors and managers: a separate supervisory probationary period. Rule 11.5’s certification step does not apply to it on its own, only where you are serving it at the same time as an initial probationary or trial period.

Two points catch people out. If you are transferred, promoted, demoted or reassigned before you finish, you serve the remainder in the new job; the clock does not restart, but it does not stop either. And if you leave federal service for more than 30 days after completing an excepted service trial period and are later reappointed to the excepted service, you serve a new trial period unless you return to the same or a substantially similar position in the same agency.

OPM’s August 2025 guidance also closed one door for agencies. They may not retroactively impose a two-year trial period on someone who was not serving one before 24 April 2025, and they may not stretch a one-year trial period that began before that date into two.

What certification means in practice

Certification is a written statement, signed by the agency head or a designated official, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Rule 11.5(d) lists four things the official may consider, "in his or her sole and exclusive discretion": your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether keeping you would advance the organizational goals of the agency or the government; and whether it would advance the efficiency of the service.

Notice what that list does. Performance and conduct are only the first of four factors. An employee with good reviews can still not be certified because of the agency’s needs, and the rule gives the official broad discretion to weigh them. That is the part of the change most new hires underestimate.

• Who decides: OPM told agencies not simply to designate first-line supervisors. It asked for at least the second-line supervisor, and ideally a political appointee or a Senior Executive Service official, who should seek the first-line supervisor’s views. Under 5 CFR 11.5(e), the agency must name the officials who will evaluate you in writing.
• The meeting: at least 60 days before your period ends, the designated official must meet you to discuss your performance and conduct, the agency’s needs, and whether your continued employment advances the public interest (5 CFR 11.5(f)). A missed meeting is not, on its own, grounds for an appeal.
• The decision: within the 30 days before the end of your period, the official decides whether to finalize your appointment or end your service.
• The paperwork: OPM told agencies not to file the certification in your electronic official personnel folder. It is kept elsewhere for a year, so ask for your own signed copy.

How to work out your own dates

Rule 11.5(b) says a probationary or trial period ends when you complete your scheduled tour of duty on the day before the anniversary of your appointment, or the day before the two-year anniversary where that applies. If your last workday falls before the anniversary, the separation happens on that workday. The rule gives the example of a last workday on a Friday with the anniversary on the following Monday: without certification, the probationer is separated before the end of the tour on Friday.

Suppose a public health nurse was given a career-conditional appointment on Monday 5 January 2026. The anniversary is Tuesday 5 January 2027, so the period ends at the close of her tour on Monday 4 January 2027. Counting back, the 60-day meeting should happen by about Thursday 5 November 2026, and the 30-day certification window opens on Saturday 5 December 2026. If she has heard nothing by early December, that is the moment to ask.

Now suppose someone without veterans’ preference was appointed to an excepted service position on Monday 2 March 2026. Their trial period is two years, so it would end on the day before the two-year anniversary, Wednesday 1 March 2028, with the certification window opening 30 days before that.

• Prior service can shorten the period. Earlier federal civilian service counts if it was in the same agency, in the same line of work judged by your actual duties, and had no more than one break in service of 30 calendar days or less.
• Unpaid leave can lengthen it. Time in a pay status counts. Nonpay status while on the rolls counts up to a total of 22 workdays; beyond that, the period is extended by the same amount. Absence for a compensable injury or military duty is credited in full when you are restored.
• Part-time staff count calendar time, just like full-time staff. Intermittent staff need 260 days in a pay status for a one-year period, or 520 for two, and never less than a calendar year.
• Reinstatement usually means a new probationary period, unless during the earlier service that gives you reinstatement eligibility you completed a probationary period or served with competitive status in a job that did not require one.

Do not rely on arithmetic alone. Ask human resources, in writing, to confirm your appointment date, the type of appointment, the length of your period, any prior service they have credited and the date it ends. Keep the reply.

What to do during the year

Because the burden sits with you, the practical task is to make the case for yourself easy to see. None of this guarantees certification, since the agency’s needs are part of the test, but it removes the avoidable reasons for being left out.

• In your first month, ask who your designated evaluating official is. If it is not your supervisor, ask how your supervisor’s input reaches them.
• Keep a short, dated record of what you delivered: caseloads handled, audits passed, training completed, credentials maintained, problems solved. Tie each item to your unit’s stated goals, because "organizational goals" is one of the four factors.
• Ask for written feedback at the midpoint, not just at the end. A problem raised in month six can be fixed; one raised in month eleven usually cannot.
• Keep your licensure, certifications and any conditions of employment current. A lapsed license is the kind of conduct issue that makes a decision easy.
• Watch unpaid leave. More than 22 workdays in nonpay status pushes your end date back, and people are often not told.
• Around 60 days out, ask for the meeting if it has not been scheduled. Bring your record.
• In the final 30 days, ask HR whether a certification has been signed, and ask for a copy. OPM tells agencies that a signed certification takes effect on the date it is signed.

If your agency uses shared certificates, direct hire or a structured interview to hire you, none of that carries over. Being selected is not the same as being retained, and the year is now treated explicitly as the final stage of the hiring process.

If you are not certified

Rule 11.5(i) requires the agency to tell you in writing, before it terminates your service, the effective date of the action. For most terminations, notice of the effective date is all Rule XI requires. If the termination is based even partly on something from before you were appointed, the agency must also give you advance written reasons, time to answer, and a written decision, and, if you are covered by the appeal rules below, you can appeal if it doesn’t.

One detail in OPM’s guidance is worth knowing. As of August 2025, agencies were told to process these separations, until new codes exist, under authority code ZLM with remark code S48, "Termination under Executive Order" 14284, and OPM says the ZLM code ensures the terminations "are not coded as being based on performance or conduct". If you are separated, check the personnel action you receive and ask HR to correct it if it describes the reason differently.

A missed deadline does not rescue you. OPM’s guidance says an agency’s failure to give advance notice, or to process the separation in time, "does not automatically finalize" the appointment. What the rule does provide, in 11.5(j), is a route for genuine mistakes: if certification was missed through administrative error, the agency head may petition the Director of OPM within 30 days of the termination to reinstate you. Only the agency can file that petition, so if you believe your certification was simply overlooked, raise it with your supervisor and HR immediately and in writing.

Your appeal rights from 2 September 2026

Before the executive order, some probationers could appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board on limited grounds. The order said OPM would set the appeal rules instead, and that those appeals would be the sole and exclusive route "except as otherwise required by law". OPM’s final rule creating a new 5 CFR part 751 took effect on 2 September 2026. It does not apply to any termination that took effect before that date.

• Who can appeal: Part 751 covers competitive-service employees in their first year, first-time supervisors, emergency-indefinite appointees, and VRA appointees in their first year. Most excepted-service trial-period employees have no part 751 appeal. If you already have a year of current continuous service, you may have MSPB rights instead; ask HR in writing.
• What you can appeal: only that the action was based on partisan political reasons or marital status, or, for a termination based wholly or partly on conditions arising before your appointment, that the agency failed to give you advance written notice of its reasons, a reasonable time to answer and furnish affidavits, and a written decision by the effective date.
• What you cannot appeal: OPM says no other issues are appealable under part 751. A missed 60-day meeting or a missing written notice of the effective date is not, on its own, a basis for reversal.
• Deadline: 30 calendar days from the effective date of the action. The window closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on day 30, and if that day is a weekend or holiday it rolls to the next workday. Filing is electronic, through OPM’s system; email and postal filings are refused unless OPM approves them. Late filings are accepted only for good cause.
• The process: the agency must send OPM its full record, including any certification or noncertification record. You may reply within 15 calendar days. Most appeals are decided on the written record; OPM may hold a hearing where the record is insufficient or credibility matters.
• After the decision: either side may ask for reconsideration within 30 calendar days. An initial decision otherwise becomes final 30 days after it is issued, and the rule provides no further administrative appeal or judicial review of OPM’s decision under part 751.

If you were terminated before 2 September 2026 while still on probation, and your competitive-service appointment began before 24 April 2025, OPM’s August 2025 guidance says you may seek to file with the MSPB, which will decide whether it has jurisdiction under the old rule. That is a narrow group, and anyone in it should get advice quickly.

VA nurses and other title 38 clinicians

VA’s clinical workforce sits under a different law, and its probation does too. Registered nurses, physicians and the other occupations listed in section 7401(1) of title 38 serve a two-year probationary period set by statute. Title 5’s adverse-action chapter excludes most VHA positions created under title 38, though not those appointed under section 7401(3), the hybrid occupations.

VA’s own employee relations handbook, updated on 31 March 2026, reflects the split. Its chapter applying Rule XI covers title 5 employees and hybrid title 38 employees appointed under sections 7401(3) and 7405(a)(1)(B), using the same four factors and the same 30-day certification window. Probationary separations of section 7401(1) staff are handled in a separate title 38 chapter that includes summary review procedures.

If you are a VA nurse or physician, do not assume the title 5 description above is your process. Ask your VA human resources office, in writing, which chapter governs your probation, when it ends, and what review applies before a separation.

What the numbers show so far

The Government Accountability Office looked at 2025 workforce data for 11 agencies and 12 subcomponents with health or safety missions, including CDC, FDA, NIH and the Veterans Health Administration. In a report published on 9 June 2026, it found that probationary employees separated at a slightly higher rate, 19 percent, than all employees at those agencies, 15 percent. Over two-thirds of the probationary employees who left did so voluntarily.

We found no government figure for how many people were not certified under Rule XI, so be wary of any figure you see quoted.

Mistakes that cost people their jobs

• Assuming the anniversary is the finish line. Separation happens at the end of your tour on the day before the anniversary, or on your last workday before it.
• Assuming a good rating is enough. It covers one factor out of four.
• Not knowing who the designated official is until it is too late to put your record in front of them.
• Taking extended unpaid leave without asking how it moves the end date.
• Waiting to hear. If the 30-day window opens and nobody has spoken to you, ask.
• Missing the 30-day appeal deadline, or filing a discrimination claim in the wrong place.

Does a new federal job still come with a probationary period if I have worked for the government before?

Often yes, but prior service may count. It is credited only if it was in the same agency and the same line of work, with no more than one break of 30 days or less. A move to a different department usually means a full new period.

Can my agency end my probation early?

Rule 11.5 says your service ends on the last day "if not terminated sooner", so an agency can separate you before the end date. The rule does not describe a way to finish probation early and gain tenure sooner.

Will a non-certification show up as a firing for performance?

OPM told agencies to use a code that keeps these terminations from being coded as based on performance or conduct. Check your personnel action to make sure that is what happened.

Should I turn down a federal offer because of this?

That is a personal call, but go in with your eyes open. The first year is less secure than it was before 2025. Weigh that against the offer, keep your license and your network active, and think carefully before giving up a secure post elsewhere on the strength of a probationary appointment.

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026. First published Oct 30, 2026. Federal hiring rules change — confirm anything you act on against the agency's own announcement or OPM guidance.