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Absolute Veterans Preference in Civil Service

Pass the examination and you rank above every non-veteran on the list, whatever their score — disabled veterans first, then veterans, then everyone else.

Verified August 19, 2026

What this benefit is

Pass the examination and you rank above every non-veteran on the list, whatever their score — disabled veterans first, then veterans, then everyone else.

What it's worth: Top of the eligible list, above every non-veteran, whatever their score

  • The regulation orders open competitive lists: disabled veterans by score, then veterans by score, then non-veterans by score — and appointment follows that order.

Who is entitled to it

  • You were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
  • You served during a qualifying conflict window.
  • A service-incurred injury or disability shortens the service requirement on the later conflict windows to a single day begun inside the window — and a compensable rating of 10% or more is what puts you in the disabled veterans tier.
  • A surviving spouse who has not remarried holds the preference in their own right.
  • The preference applies to New Jersey civil service employment.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1File the Civil Service Veterans Preference Claim Form with the veterans department. The preference is not applied from your record — it has to be established, and an unestablished preference is worth nothing however strong your claim.
  2. 2You have longer than you think. The department states the preference can be established as late as 8 days before an open competitive employment list is issued, so a late discovery is not automatically a lost one.
  3. 3Send the discharge certificate as well as the DD214 (or WD Form 53-55 for the oldest service). For the disabled veterans tier, add the VA disability award letter — a compensable rating of at least 10% is what that tier asks for.
  4. 4If you established a preference before 1 April 1980, establish it again. The department says preference numbers issued before that date are void.
  5. 5If your DD214 was destroyed in the records-centre fire, the regulation accepts an agency letter attesting to the destruction plus your notarised statement of service dates, branch, rank and discharge.
Form
Civil Service Veterans Preference Claim Form (NJDMAVA Form 05A-1)
File with
The New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs, by post
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingThis is absolute preference, and the regulation demonstrates it with its own worked example: a disabled veteran scoring 80 ranks first on the list, above a non-veteran scoring 90. Ties between eligibles of the same status are not broken — they share the rank.
CorrectionThe preference is wartime-defined. Qualifying service during a listed conflict window is required, or a service-incurred injury during one regardless of length of service — peacetime-only service does not carry it. A veteran told "New Jersey has absolute preference" without that qualifier will overestimate their claim.
Worth knowingA surviving spouse who has not remarried holds the preference in their own right — one of only a handful of employment preferences in this corpus that survives the veteran.
CorrectionThe filing deadline is later than this record used to say. It previously said the claim had to be filed before the examination closing date. The veterans department publishes something more generous: the preference can be established as late as 8 days before the open competitive employment list is issued. A veteran who thought the door had shut at the closing date may still be in time.
Worth knowingThe 1997 conflict-window list this record used to flag as stale has been replaced with the department's current one. World War II, Korea and Vietnam each ask for 90 days of active duty begun inside the window. Lebanon (both the 1958 crisis and the 1982-87 peacekeeping mission), Grenada, Panama, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Southern and Northern Watch, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom each ask for 14 days in the theatre — or a single day if you came away with a service-incurred injury. Southern and Northern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom are all still open-ended.
CorrectionReserve and Guard training does not count towards the active duty requirement. Basic training, advanced training, officer candidate school, weekend drills and annual training are all excluded by name, whatever the era. A reservist counting those days towards the 90 or the 14 will come up short.
Worth knowingThe spouse of a LIVING disabled veteran can hold the preference, which is rare — but only if that spouse is not already employed in a civil service position, and only if the disabled veteran waives their own preference for as long as the spouse is employed. The parent of a veteran who died in service also holds the disabled veterans preference, and where there is a surviving spouse as well, only one of them may claim it.
Known gapOur regulation text is the administrative code as supplemented in 1997, and the department page that carries the current windows is guidance rather than the rule itself. Promotional examinations are governed by a separate rule we could not read. The department also states that a current servicemember without a discharge is not eligible at all, which is stricter than the "other than dishonorable" wording our regulation copy carries — if that gap matters to you, ring the veterans benefits bureau before relying on either.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.