22 U.S.C. § 3949
Section 3949 · Limited appointments
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Thomas v. Baker (1991)
Most recently applied in Julie Beberman v. Antony Blinken (March 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
A limited appointment in the Service, including an appointment of an individual who is an employee of an agency, may not exceed 5 years in duration and, except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), may not be extended or renewed. A limited appointment in the Service which is limited by its terms to a period of one year or less is a temporary appointment.
A limited appointment may be extended for continued service—
as a consular agent;
in accordance with section 3951(a) of this title;
as a career candidate, if—
continued service is determined appropriate to remedy a matter that would be cognizable as a grievance under subchapter XI; or
the individual is serving in the uniformed services (as defined in section 4303 of title 38) and the limited appointment expires in the course of such service;
as a career employee in another Federal personnel system serving in a Foreign Service position on detail from another agency;
as a foreign national employee;
in exceptional circumstances if the Secretary determines the needs of the Service require the extension of—
a limited noncareer appointment for a period not to exceed 1 year; or
a limited appointment of a career candidate for the minimum time needed to resolve a grievance, claim, investigation, or complaint not otherwise provided for in this section.
Except as provided in paragraph (2) noncareer employees who have served for 5 consecutive years under a limited appointment under this section may be reappointed to a subsequent noncareer limited appointment if there is at least a 1-year break in service before such new appointment.
The Secretary may waive the 1-year break requirement under paragraph (1) in cases of special need.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2016—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 114–323, § 409(1), substituted “subsections (b) and (c)” for “subsection (b)”.
Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 114–323, § 409(2)(A), substituted “if—” for “if”, inserted subpar. (A) designation before “continued service”, and added subpar. (B).
Subsec. (b)(6). Pub. L. 114–323, § 409(2)(B)–(D), added par. (6).
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 114–323, § 409(3), added subsec. (c).
1994—Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 103–236, as amended by Pub. L. 103–415, added par. (5).
1987—Pub. L. 100–204 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), substituted “subsection (b)” for “section 3951(a) of this title”, and added subsec. (b).