18 October 2013 - The Board of Foreign Service Examinations (BFSE) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced today that the Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Examination Qualifying Test will be held on 15 December 2013. The Qualifying Test is the first of five (5) steps in the DFA recruitment process for appointment in the position of Foreign Service Officer, Class IV (Salary Grade 24).

The test will be conducted by the DFA in partnership with the Civil Service Commission in ten (10) venues, namely: Baguio City, Cagayan de Oro City, Cebu City, Davao City, Iloilo City, Legazpi City, Metro Manila, San Fernando City in La Union, City of San Fernando in Pampanga, Zamboanga City. The BFSE is also considering the option of conducting the Qualifying Test in four (4) overseas testing centers, namely: New York and San Francisco, USA; Paris, France; and Dubai, UAE.

The FSO Qualifying Test is now elevated to the status of a Civil Service eligibility examination, comparable to first and second level positions in the Foreign Service and to all other first and second level positions in the government. Henceforth, the test will officially be named “Career Service Examination for Foreign Service Officer” (CSE-FSO) and will serve as both the Qualifying Test for the FSO Examination and an eligibility examination.

Successful examinees will be conferred the Career Foreign Service Officer Eligibility by the CSC. They will then be eligible to advance to the next phase of the BFSE examination process which is the preliminary interview, followed by the written Test, the psychological test, and the oral test.

Interested parties may obtain the application form and other details about the FSO examination from the DFA website www.dfa.gov.ph, by calling the BFSE Secretariat at (02) 834-3080, 834-3083 and 834-4925, or by visiting or contacting DFA Regional Consular Offices nationwide.

The application period will run until 15 November 2013. END