So it seems like its some sort of Peace Corps blogger tradition to put together a timeline of one’s application process through the start of service, and since there aren’t a whole lot yet from people who applied under the new application system, I thought that it’s as good a time as any for me to add my own to the melée. So here goes!
January 2014: During a professional advancement crisis, I began to plan out options. So, at the end of the month, I decided to meet with a recruiter in New York in order to learn more about Peace Corps and the opportunities available. However, after life got in the way, I didn’t get to actually meet with a recruiter until…
May 2014: I finally made it into the recruitment office, and spent a few hours at their office hours, learning about the different programs and hearing about the staff’s experiences.
1 July 2014: An RPCV recruiter reached out to schedule a phone call with me to talk about his experiences and answer my questions. By this point, I was really intrigued, and openings had gone live for health in Kyrgyzstan.
15 July 2014: Peace Corps announced and switched to the new application system (press release here). The new system takes about 1/4 the time to fill out, requires fewer essays, can get you from application to country in as little as 6 months, and, most importantly to me, lets you apply to specific programs in specific countries.
18 July 2014: Ongoing professional uncertainty combined with my discovery of the new application system lead me to prepare and send in an application to the health program in Kyrgyzstan in the course of a single afternoon.
18-21 July 2014: As part of the application process, you register for the Medical Applicant Portal, and you have to submit a preliminary health history. This allows them to see if your base level of health will be adequate for the limited medical care available in many Peace Corps countries.
22 July 2014: I received an e-mail asking me to give preferences for where I would like to serve and in what program. Based on my medical form I submitted, I was pre-cleared to apply to 42 countries, but not to Kyrgyzstan.
23-31 July 2014: I reached out to the Medical Office, and after some back-and-forth messaging, we found that because I marked on my form that I had received counseling in the past that it had automatically disqualified me from serving in Kyrgyzstan (as well as a few other countries), the reason being that Kyrgyzstan supposedly lacked the ability to provide ongoing psychological therapy. In fact, now that I understand the psychological demands of service, it’s actually a good thing that I was forced to think about this from the very beginning of my process.
The actual reason I had sought counseling in the past was to cope after the Boston Marathon bombing (I blogged about that here), and after talking with the nurse, they gave me an exception so I could apply to Kyrgyzstan. I knew the region and the culture already, I reasoned, and I already had coping mechanisms. Besides, I would be happier in a place I wanted to go than someplace on a beach that I didn’t want to go to, I reasoned. By giving me this waiver, though, I had additional paperwork I needed to complete later in the process (I’ll mention it when I get there).
7 August 2014: Peace Corps confirmed receiving my country preference form. I should note that this form still allows you to apply “to go anywhere and to do anything,” which a lot of people call “traditional Peace Corps.” I know I would never have applied without a say in where I was going, so I have a LOT of respect for people who applied and offered to go anywhere.
19 September 2014: I was invited to interview to become a “Health Extension Volunteer” in Kyrgyzstan (officially called by Peace Corps “Kyrgyz Republic,” without the particle “the”). I was offered a few times, and chose one that worked with my calendar. My interviewer then sent me a calendar invitation and confirmations.
23 September 2014: I had my interview! We did ours by video conference. It was by far one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever done. I don’t know for sure, but I think that the response form that the interviewers have to fill in is actually a bunch of separate text boxes, so rather than asking, “tell me about a time when you failed,” and letting you talk, they interrupt you with the individual box prompts: “what was the time?” “when was that?” “what happened?” “how did that make you feel?” “what did you do next,” and so on. It made it very difficult to construct a coherent narrative. My interviewer also kept pointing out how inexperienced I was at the time, which is really funny in hindsight because I came in with more experience than some of my colleagues who were fresh out of college (some of whom didn’t even want to work in health, but were initially put there because they had said they would go anywhere and do anything). In short, I felt like I’d messed it up really badly. I am telling you this because I want you to know, if you’re applying, that the interview is actually a weird format that really can throw you off your game, so don’t be too discouraged if it doesn’t go exactly as you expect!
24 September 2014: My references were sent the form they needed to fill out. I was also asked to update my information for Peace Corps’ files and to familiarize myself with the PC alcohol policies.
9 October 2014: I randomly met several recruiters at a career fair, one of whom was an RPCV from Kazakhstan, and they had only encouragement for me. That same day, at the encouragement of those recruiters, I sent a follow-up note to my interviewer expressing my concern that my passion for this work didn’t come through, and asking if there were other ways I could show my commitment.
20 October 2014: Some error on PC’s end meant that they lost my reference forms from both my references, so I had to ask them to be sent again. Within two days, PC had either found them or my references had both re-sent the forms. I was advised that the “Know-By” date for my program (departing April 2015) would be 15 January, 2015.
28 October 2014: By some miracle, I got my invitation less than a week after I was told to wait until January. I was required to accept or decline the invitation within 7 days. It was noted in bold that invitations are contingent on completing a full legal and medical clearance process. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect: I was offered a job the next day that would time almost perfectly with the Peace Corps departure date I was given of 22 April 2015. I also got a massive bombardment of emails from the Medical Portal about forms I needed to submit.
29 October 2014: I accepted my invitation, I accepted my job, and I quit my old job. In the space of 24 hours, I went from not knowing how I was paying my rent three days later to having my entire life lined up for the following 3 years. And it was halloweekend too!
I should pause for a moment to advise prospective volunteers to be very organized from this point forward: I had 20 different medical forms that I needed filled out, signed, scanned and approved from around 10 different providers. While I had about 4 months to get it all done, it’s important to stay on top of the process, especially if you have additional forms requested. For many of these forms, I had to submit them to the doctor’s office and wait 10 business days for them to be processed (thanks, Kaiser Permanente…). Then, I had to resubmit them to fix mistakes they’d made. Moral of the story: start early.
There’s a bunch of different online portals, each with its own login, and each with its own set of tasks you have to complete, so again this is a good time to fire up the OCD and stay organized. From what I can remember in my emails, there’s stuff you have to do in the Application Portal (the one from your application), a few units in LearningSpace, the Medical Applicant Portal, and the New Volunteer Portal. All of it has to be done at least 30 days before staging, but you can get most of it (apart from the medical clearance) done in about a month.
November 2014 Part 1: Legal Clearance: you have to get fingerprinted on a special form provided by PC, then FedEx it to them (I walked it to HQ myself because I was living in DC, and nobody knew what to do with it, even from the office). Be sure to follow the specific instructions on how to mail/return each packet, because some of what you send can be damaged by the USPS’ screening procedures for mail at federal buildings. I got confirmation in December that they received my kit.
November 2014 Part 2: Apply for a Peace Corps Passport: No matter what, Peace Corps requires you to obtain a special passport for official use during your service. Because I needed to keep my personal passport during the application process, I had to use a non-standard form, and all this other stuff, then get it sealed at the post office. Pro tip: some cities don’t let you walk-in to do passport applications at the post office as I learned, so be sure to check and get an appointment well in advance. Your passport will be issued to you at staging.
November-December 2014 Part 3: LearningSpace: Peace Corps has you complete a few units on a website called LearningSpace. I did it in a single afternoon, but it’s easy to forget about it.
January 2015: Medical Clearance: As I mentioned before, I had to do a LOT of medical visits to prove that I’m a healthy person. Dental and x-rays, eye exams and glasses fittings, ordering new glasses, lab work that included a full panel of HIV, Hep ABC, and others, a physical, proof of immunity or vaccination for polio, MMR, TDAP, and chicken pox, and a special health history form. I also had to do special supplements because of my responses on the application back in July about my health history, including special forms about my asthma, a sinus infection like 7 years ago, and a mental health evaluation from a psychologist. It took forever and it cost money (ugh) but I finally got cleared on 22 January 2015.
February 2015: I got official emails from the Desk Officer and whatnot welcoming me to the program. After pushing a little bit, he said that now that I was medically cleared, it was close to certain that I would be on the plane in April. As seen with other countries though, you should always be ready for anything. Flexibility, after all, is one of the most important qualities of a PCV. I also began corresponding with my program administrators in Bishkek, and had to submit housing preference forms, specially-formatted resumes, aspiration statements, and a few other documents.
25 March 2015: Peace Corps bought my ticket to Kyrgyzstan, and they arranged my travel to our staging event in Washington DC, which was scheduled for 24 April (arriving 23 April, flying to Kyrgyzstan 25 April). You’ll notice that our staging date changed – this is common, so keep your schedule open for the week before you leave just in case. This is due to scheduling available hotels and flights for staging etc.
23 April 2015: I flew to DC!
24 April 2015: We had our staging event, where we got our PC passports, got oriented to Peace Corps and its goals, and did a bunch of team-building activities.
25 April 2015: I went and got breakfast in downtown DC with my best friend, and then got on a plane that evening!
27 April 2015: I LANDED IN KYRGYZSTAN!
My application took about 9 months from the day I submitted it to the day I arrived in country. For some it takes more time, for some it takes less. But I hope this can give you an idea of what to expect along the way! And if you’re wondering why I joined the Peace Corps, you can read all about it in my post with the same title!
Got other questions about the process? Send me a message or let me know in the comments!