In the UN system organizations, six different rules depend on "five years of service". Each one counts those five years in its own way. So you can have five years for one rule and almost none for another. A single resignation, even if you are re-hired the next day, can send one count back to zero while your pension count carries on.1
That is why "How long have I served?" has no single answer. Before you resign, transfer or move to another agency, the better question is: which of my five-year counts will this move change?
Six rules, six ways of counting five years
The number is always five. What is counted is different every time, so read the third column.
| Rule | What five years gives you | What is counted | What stops or reduces the count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pension: right to a lifelong benefit | A pension later in life, instead of only a one-off payout when you leave | Years of contributions to the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund | Not a move between member organizations (the Fund is shared). Taking the one-off payout (withdrawal settlement) ends all future pension rights |
| Pension: how much it pays | The salary figure your pension is calculated on | Your best 36 months of pensionable pay within your last five years | Only the last five years count, so higher pay earned earlier falls out of the calculation |
| Repatriation grant | The right to the grant when you leave | Unbroken service on a fixed-term or continuing appointment while living outside your home country | Leaving the UN restarts it. Time served in your home country is deducted at twice the rate. Permanent residence in the duty-station country rules you out |
| Fixed-term contract length | Renewals of up to five years at a time, instead of up to two | Unbroken service | A break in continuity, including any resignation |
| Continuing appointment | The right to be considered in a review (not an automatic contract) | Unbroken fixed-term service after a competitive selection reviewed by a Secretariat review body, with satisfactory performance appraisals | Any resignation, even with re-hiring the next day. JPO years. Service in organizations that do not use the UN Staff Regulations and Rules |
| Clean disciplinary record | A condition of that continuing-appointment review | The five years just before the review | Any disciplinary measure in those five years |
Why a resignation matters even with no gap
Since 1 November 2025, the UN Secretariat's rules on appointments say two things that sound contradictory. If you resign from one fixed-term appointment and take another, you do not have to wait before starting. But any resignation counts as a break in continuity, even if the new appointment starts the next day.1
Both are true. There is no waiting period, but your service is no longer "continuous". The counts for a continuing appointment and for the repatriation grant start again from zero. Your pension count does not change, because it counts contributions, not continuity.
If you are asked to resign and be re-hired, which often happens when you change category or entity, ask HR in writing which entitlements you will keep. "No break in service is required" does not mean "your service stays continuous".
Two groups whose count is different
People recruited through a competitive examination. This is the route the Young Professionals Programme uses. These staff receive a continuing appointment after two years on a fixed-term appointment, if their service is satisfactory. The five-year rule does not apply to them.2
Junior Professional Officers. JPO years do not count towards a continuing appointment. If a JPO moves to a fixed-term appointment, the count starts on the first day of that appointment, however long the JPO assignment lasted.
A continuing appointment also requires at least seven years of service left before the mandatory age of separation. Someone can meet the five-year rule and still not qualify because of age.
Three common mistakes that cost money
Mixing up the right to a pension with its amount. Five years of contributions give you the right to a pension instead of only a one-off payout. How much it pays is a different rule: it depends on your best 36 months in your last five years, and on your age when you leave.4
Assuming all UN years count towards a continuing appointment. Unbroken fixed-term service in another entity that uses the UN Staff Regulations and Rules counts. Service in the specialized agencies, such as WHO or ILO, does not, because they have their own rules.
Missing the repatriation grant deadline. The grant is lost if you do not claim it within two years of leaving, with proof that you have moved away from your last duty-station country. The usual proof is a notarized statement made in your new country of residence.3 The five-year rule started on 1 July 2016; before that, one year was enough. Staff who already had at least one year of service on 30 June 2016 keep a grant for the service they had built up by that date, so check which rule applies to you.3
Check your own five years
Do this once, in writing, and keep it. Most problems here come from assuming one number applies to everything.
- List every appointment you have held: start and end dates, type of appointment, entity. Mark every gap and every resignation.
- Take your contribution years from your Pension Fund statement, not from your employment history. The two figures are often different.
- Count your repatriation-grant service separately: fixed-term and continuing appointments only, while living outside your home country, with time inside it deducted at twice the rate.
- Check whether your selection was reviewed by a Secretariat review body. If not, your continuing-appointment count has not started.
- Before any move (resignation, transfer to another agency, special leave without pay), ask HR in writing what each of the six counts will be afterwards.
Key takeaways
- Keep track of six counts, not one, and know which rule each belongs to.
- Get your contribution years from the Pension Fund before you resign. Under five years, the one-off payout is the only option. What leaving early does to your UN pension explains that choice.
- Treat any resignation as a break in continuity, even when no waiting period applies.
- On the day you leave, put the two-year repatriation-grant claim deadline in your calendar.
See what your years of service give you: UN entitlements and the conditions for each →
Sources
- ST/AI/2025/3, Administration of appointments, in force 1 November 2025, sections 2.6, 2.8, 2.9, 3.2, 3.7–3.9 and 6.3. UN Digital Library. ↩
- ST/SGB/2011/9, Continuing appointments, sections 1, 2.1 and 2.2. UN Digital Library. ↩
- ST/AI/2016/2, Repatriation grant, sections 2, 3.1–3.3, 4 and 7.1 (including the transitional measures for staff eligible on 30 June 2016); annex IV to the Staff Regulations and staff rule 3.19. UN Digital Library. ↩
- UN Joint Staff Pension Fund Regulations, articles 25 (final average remuneration), 30 and 31. unjspf.org. ↩
Last reviewed: November 2026. General information, not official HR or financial advice. These are UN Secretariat rules; funds, programmes and specialized agencies apply their own, so confirm your position with your HR and your Pension Fund statement.
