The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

A P R I L 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 says she was happy to land a job with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service helping American companies trying to export products to Africa. Before Pierce arrived in Senegal, she asked the com- munity liaison officer there to put her on the newsletter mailing list so she could get a feel for what kind of jobs might be available. She started applying in March, four months before her July arrival, and by April she’d landed an interview with FCS. The job paid better than the clerical positions the em- bassy was offering, and Pierce hopes it will serve her well when she again seeks private-sector work in marketing. The disadvantage was that the Commercial Service, part of the Commerce Department, doesn’t recognize eligible family member status. That means she could only be em- ployed as a contractor, without earning any federal bene- fits. Her advice: Learn the local language and take rele- vant courses at the Foreign Service Institute and start looking for work as soon as possible. “And, like the Boy Scouts: always be prepared.” Working Outside the Embassy The prospects for spouses and partners working out- side the embassy are slowly getting better, but they still have a long way to go. So far, State has concluded bilat- eral work agreements with 114 countries, authorizing spouses to pursue jobs on the local economy. Most of those arrangements have long been in place, but the U.S. has signed a dozen of them in the last five years, most re- cently with Austria and Germany. Though all spouses retain full immunity from criminal prosecutions in these countries under the Vienna Con- vention on Diplomatic Relations, even under the work agreements they do not have civil and administrative im- munity stemming from anything related to their local em- ployment. Informal arrangements exist with 42 other countries, F OCUS