{"id":39622,"date":"2026-06-12T12:18:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39622"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:18:51","slug":"no-you-do-not-have-to-be-a-u-s-citizen-to-be-hired-by-the-usps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/06\/12\/no-you-do-not-have-to-be-a-u-s-citizen-to-be-hired-by-the-usps\/","title":{"rendered":"No, you do not have to be a U.S. citizen to be hired by the USPS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>USPS Handbook EL-312 &#8211; Employment and Placement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>55 Eligibility to Work in the Postal Service<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>551 Determining Eligibility at the Screening Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To be eligible for career or noncareer Postal Service employment, an applicant must be a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident alien (one who possesses a \u201cgreen card\u201d), or a citizen of American Samoa or other territory owing permanent allegiance to the United States. This requirement is addressed at the application screening stage by reviewing the applicant\u2019s answer to Item E1, PS Form 2591, Application for Employment. Citizenship documents are not reviewed at this stage.<\/p>\n<p>On PS Form 2591, if the applicant responds that he or she<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is not a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident alien, or a citizen of American Samoa or other territory owing permanent allegiance to the United States, the applicant is not eligible for employment.<\/li>\n<li>Is a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident alien, or a citizen of American Samoa or other territory owing permanent allegiance to the United States, then the applicant continues in the hiring process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NOTE: The above information provided by USPS. The text below provided via the Internet.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Eligibility Requirements:<\/strong><br \/>\nTo be hired, an applicant must be one of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A United States citizen.<\/li>\n<li>A lawful permanent resident alien (possessing a green card).<\/li>\n<li>A citizen of American Samoa or another U.S. territory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Additional Employment Requirements:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Age: You must be at least 18, or 16 with a high school diploma.<\/li>\n<li>Background Check: Must pass a criminal background check (10-year, U.S.-based).<\/li>\n<li>Drug Testing: Must pass a pre-employment drug screen.<\/li>\n<li>Residency: Generally, you must have lived in the U.S. or its territories for the last 5 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>THIS WEBSITE CANNOT RESPOND TO EMPLOYMENT WITH USPS QUESTIONS. CONTACT USPS.COM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FYI.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-39623\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FYI-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FYI-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FYI-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USPS Handbook EL-312 &#8211; Employment and Placement 55 Eligibility to Work in the Postal Service 551 Determining Eligibility at the Screening Stage To be eligible for career or noncareer Postal Service employment, an applicant must be a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident alien (one who possesses a \u201cgreen card\u201d), or a citizen of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39624,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622\/revisions\/39624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}