Elimination of Time-in-Grade

What it does

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is adopting, substantially as proposed, its proposed rule eliminating the Time-in- Grade (TIG) restriction on advancement to competitive service positions in the General Schedule (GS). Under the prior regulations, a candidate generally could not be advanced to a covered position at GS-6 or above without completing 52 weeks in a position no more than one grade lower--or two grades lower for certain positions in two-grade-interval lines of work. This final rule removes that requirement. Employees remain subject to all applicable occupational qualification standards and any additional job-related qualification requirements established by their employing agency.

The Personnel Management Office's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

5 parts of Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

5 CFR 300, 5 CFR 315, 5 CFR 316, 5 CFR 352, 5 CFR 410

Compared with

The Personnel Management Office has published 29 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 14 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

1 earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 3206-AP05 since Jan. 1, 2025.

• May 28, 2026 Proposed rule. Elimination of Time-in-Grade

What happens next and when

This rule is effective January 19, 2027.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket OPM-2026-0067 on Regulations.gov
• Title 5 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register