Reinstatement allows a former Federal employee to reenter the Federal competitive service workforce without competing with the public in a civil service examination. If an applicant has reinstatement eligibility, the applicant is eligible to apply for any open civil service examination, as well as for Federal jobs open only to Federal employees. There is no time limit on reinstatement eligibility in certain cases. For example, if an applicant has veterans’ preference or has acquired Federal career tenure by completing three years of substantially continuous creditable service, the applicant has permanent reinstatement eligibility. C.P. formerly worked in the Federal competitive service workforce.
Explanation
Answer: E - The fourth sentence in the paragraph states that when an applicant has veteran’s preference, the applicant has permanent reinstatement eligibility. The second sentence states that an applicant with reinstatement eligibility is eligible to apply for any civil service examination. Therefore, if an applicant has veteran’s preference, the applicant is eligible to apply for any civil service examination due to having reinstatement eligibility. Accordingly, Response E is valid because C.P. will be eligible to apply for any open civil service examination if C.P. has veterans’ preference. Responses A, B, C, and D are invalid because they make assumptions which cannot be supported by the information in the paragraph.
Response B assumes that the only two ways of attaining reinstatement eligibility is to have veteran’s preference or three years creditable service. Response C assumes that applicants are allowed to apply for open civil service examinations and jobs open only to status candidates only when applicants have reinstatement eligibility. Responses A and D assume that applicants are allowed to apply for open civil service examinations and jobs open only to status candidates when and only when applicants have veteran’s preference or three years creditable service.
