Civil Service Exam: Fee, Eligibility and Requirements

The Career Service Examination is how most Filipinos acquire civil service eligibility, which is a condition of appointment to many government positions. The figures below come from the Civil Service Commission’s own Citizen’s Charter, 5th Edition, 2023, which is the edition CSC publishes.

What it costs

For the grant of eligibility, the charter records 20 working days rather than three for CSC Field Office Tawi-Tawi and other island-based field offices. Elsewhere in the same document that grant is broken out as a PHP 200 evaluation fee plus a PHP 300 processing fee, which is PHP 500 together.

Getting from application to a certificate in hand is therefore ₱600.00 in CSC fees, the ₱500.00 application plus ₱100.00 for one copy of the certificate, assuming you pass on the first sitting. That addition is this page’s, not a total the charter prints.

Who may take it

The charter’s own eligibility list, for the CSE-PPT.

• A Filipino citizen, at least 18 years old, of good moral character.
• No criminal record, and no conviction by final judgment of an offence or crime involving moral turpitude as indicated at the back of CS Form 100 rev. Sept 2016, nor of disgraceful or immoral conduct, dishonesty, exam irregularity, drunkenness or addiction to drugs.
• Not dishonourably discharged from military service, and not dismissed for cause from any civilian position in the government.
• Must not have taken the same level of career service examination, regardless of mode, within three months from the last examination taken.

For COMEX, the computerised examination, the charter adds two conditions: that the applicant has not already passed the level applied for, and has not taken the same level within the last three months immediately preceding the date of the examination applied for.

The application form

One requirement carries an instruction that catches people out.

Fully accomplished application form, Revised CS Form No. 100. The spaces for “Signature of Applicant” and “Right Thumbmark” should be left blank. These shall be accomplished in the presence of the CSC processor.

The form is free at any CSC office or downloadable from the CSC website. Signing it in advance means filling it out again.

Where COMEX is offered

The charter lists the Computerized Examination at CSC Regional Offices I to IV, VI to VIII, X, XII, CAR, NCR and Caraga. A COMEX application requires a copy of the slot reservation confirmation email showing the date and time.

The other eligibility services

Once you pass, the charter’s related services are where most follow-up requests land.

A Certificate of Eligibility is required when a passer is appointed to a position requiring that eligibility, which is why the certificate rather than the exam result is the document an agency asks for.

How CSC announces each cycle

Dates never appear in the charter. They come out as numbered issuances, and the numbering restarts each year, so the series number alone does not identify a cycle without its year. Two examples visible on the CSC website on 4 September 2026:

An Announcement opens a cycle and carries the calendar; an Advisory handles the logistics of a sitting that is already scheduled. Check both, because the room assignment never appears in the announcement that opened the cycle.

One deadline sits outside both: for a request for Certification, the charter requires that the photograph have been taken within three months prior to filing, so an older photo is rejected even when everything else is in order.

What this page does not cover

The 2023 charter read for this page does not publish the passing score, the number of items, the coverage of the test, the examination calendar or the release date of results, so none of those is stated here. CSC issues those separately as numbered Examination Announcements and Examination Advisories on its website, and they change every cycle. This page also does not cover eligibilities granted under special laws, which have their own conditions per statute.

Related

The Anti-Red Tape Act guide covers the complaints the Commission’s anti-red tape units hear.

The PRC licence renewal guide covers professional regulation rather than civil service eligibility, the NBI clearance guide covers the criminal record check that government appointments usually also need, and the valid IDs guide covers the identification you present at the counter.

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• How figures on this site are sourced