Elementary through high school teachers are eligible to apply. However, not all applicants are eligible for all countries. Please see the Participating Countries listing for country specific eligibility requirements.
To meet the basic eligibility requirements of the program, an applicant must meet all of the following six requirements. Failure to meet any one of the requirements makes a candidate ineligible. At the time of application, a candidate must:
- be a U.S. citizen;
- be fluent in English;
- hold at least a Bachelor's degree;
- have a current full-time teaching assignment in the U.S. or one of its territories;
- be in at least the fifth year of full-time teaching; and
- meet current FSB eligibility requirements regarding previous grants: previous Fulbright recipients who completed a grant of longer than eight weeks in 2007 or earlier are eligible to apply. Previous Fulbright recipients who completed a grant of eight weeks or less in 2010 or earlier are eligible to apply. Applicants must also not have received more than the lifetime limit of two Fulbright grants (eight weeks or more = 1 grant; eight weeks or less = ½ grant).
The Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs exchange programs and participants should represent the diversity of American political, social, and cultural life. Diversity should be interpreted in the broadest sense and encompass differences including but not limited to ethnicity, race, gender, religion, geographic location, social-economic status, disabilities, and sexual orientation.
Previous applicants are eligible to apply for the program. All re-applicants must submit a current application form in order to be considered, unless they submitted a new complete application for 2011-12. Re-applicants who applied in 2011-12 must submit a new FSB cover sheet (page A1 of the application) and obtain both a new Administrator Approval form (page R1 of the application) and an Immediate Supervisor Reference (page R3 of the application). Re-applicants should also update any information that may have changed, such as their course schedule. Re-applicants will be advised if additional information or interviews are necessary. Re-applicants are advised to contact program staff with any questions about the application requirements.
Preference will be given to candidates who have not had previous Fulbright grants. However, recipients of a semester or year-long Fulbright grant are eligible to receive another Fulbright grant five years after the date of completion of the previous grant. The five-year requirement between two grants does not apply to short-term grants, which are defined as grants of under two months duration. Waiting periods with regard to short term grants are as follows:
a. Recipients of a short-term grant are eligible to receive a semester or year-long grant two years after the date of completion of the preceding short-term grant.
b. Recipients of a semester or year-long grant are eligible to receive a short-term grant two years after the date of completion of the preceding basic grant.
c. Recipients of a short-term grant are eligible to receive another short-term grant two years after the completion of the preceding short-term grant.
Number of Awards: The maximum number of any combination of basic Fulbright grants for Scholars and Teachers is limited to two with the following conditions and exceptions:
a. that a Student grant does not count toward this lifetime limit;
b. that a short-term grant (two months or less) shall count as ½ of a basic Fulbright grant for purposes of counting in a lifetime limit and shall not exceed two in a lifetime.
