Beth Conlin is a 2021 Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program alumna and an expert on Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs). She spoke with the George W. Bush Institute's Deputy Director of Leadership Programs Michael Bailey about how SOFAs have historically prevented military spouses and dependents from seeking employment while stationed abroad and how she used the lessons learned in VLP to change this.
Let’s start with a bit of level-setting. What is a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), and what is its intended purpose?
SOFAs are peacetime agreements between the United States and a host country where there is a presence of U.S. military personnel. SOFAs outline the legal framework for how the foreign country’s laws apply to the U.S. military personnel and their dependents. They also act as the visa for those dependents and family members who are stationed overseas with their service member, commonly referred to residing or serving “under SOFA status.” SOFAs exist between the United States and Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and more.
How have SOFA agreements impacted meaningful employment for military spouses stationed internationally?
For decades military families have been told, without evidence, that they can’t work under SOFA status. It’s unclear where this misinformation came from, as the SOFA does not mention employment or limits to employment. In Germany, military spouses, including myself, were told if they were “caught” working that they would be arrested and lose their SOFA protections. In Italy, military spouses were told that working off the military base was “illegal” and would get them sent home without their service member. These threats persisted for decades intimidating most military spouses to not question things and instead give up their careers to move overseas on military orders, putting their family’s financial stability at risk.
This issue is personal to you. Can you tell us a bit about how this agreement impacted your employment opportunities?
In 2013, my service member and I received orders to move to Germany and, at the time, I was working for a global employer. After 5 years of constant moving and job hopping, I had found an employer that would allow me to continue my career regardless of where the military moved us, an actual dream come true for this career-minded military spouse. Leading up to our move, my employer was prepping my work visa to continue employment in Germany when they asked the question: “What will a work visa do to your SOFA status? Will this impact your family or our company?” I took that question to every Judge Advocate General (the military’s title for lawyer) Officer, Department of Defense (DoD) official, and civilian leader I could find and not a single person could answer these basic questions. The lack of clarity on the intersection of international employment and peace treaties caused my employer to rescind their offer of employment in Germany. In an instant, my family went from two incomes to one and my goals of rising in my profession were immediately crushed.
This jarring reversal sent me on a decades long quest to gain clarity on the SOFA and to determine where in the SOFA it says I can’t work. I took this issue to my representatives in Congress, to any DoD official I could meet with, to non-profit leaders, to journalists, and to the State Department. Along the way I was constantly told “we can’t renegotiate an entire SOFA,” or “amending the SOFA requires the State Department, the host country, the DoD and the Senate to approve.” I wasn’t asking for a renegotiation or an amendment, I was simply asking them to show me where it says in the SOFA that I can’t work. Military families had been operating under the model of, “it doesn’t say that I can work, so obviously I can’t,” instead of leaning into the fact that the SOFA doesn’t mention employment at all. I wanted clarity for our military families so that no other family would have to fall victim to fear mongering or decades of misinformation.
You are a Class of 2021 Veteran Leadership Program Scholar. Tell us about how this program impacted you and your work. How were you able to take the lessons and apply them to your efforts on advocating for more clarity on SOFA?
Not only did I learn a tremendous amount about my messaging and audience, I gained credibility as an expert on this issue. In one of our sessions about the power of storytelling, we did exercises to help us remain focused on the problem that we are trying to solve. This exercise helped reshape my ask so that my audience understood that I was not requesting amendments or renegotiations to tri-agency, dual country peace treaties. Rather, I was simply asking for clarity on employment. Prior to VLP, I was an angry military spouse demanding redress for lost time. After VLP, I was a Veteran Leadership Scholar and SOFA expert seeking clarity. Having a crystal-clear ask, with the credibility to be the one asking, allowed me to move this previously stalled effort towards getting real answers for our military families.
Have you collaborated with other VLP alumni to expand upon your advocacy efforts around this issue?
One of the best things about VLP is the network from your cohort and those that come before and after. Libby Jaminson from the Class of 2019 was a critical player to help me get this issue in front of the Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP), a pro-bono committee of the American Bar Association. After a year of work with the LAMP committee, we were able to pass a unanimous resolution that was adopted by the American Bar Association urging DoD to provide clarity on SOFA so that JAG officers could have better guidelines on which to give counsel. The sheer weight of the American Bar Association also saying the SOFA needed clarity was yet another layer of credibility — making this an issue that was becoming harder to ignore.
What has happened with SOFA over the last few years as it relates to providing more clarity around military spouse employment?
In January of 2025, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs published a memo providing stark clarity on the issues of SOFA and employment. As of Jan. 17, 2025, a military spouse will never again hear that they can’t work under SOFA status!
The memo states: “No international agreement to which the United States is a party regarding legal status protections for DoD military and civilian personnel, and their dependents, deployed or otherwise assigned overseas, specially prohibits the employment of DoD-authorized dependents in the country where they are located.”
The memo also states that “DoD-authorized dependents would not lose their status as dependents in the country where they are located under applicable international agreements as a result of their employment.”
These two simple statements clarify that SOFA is not a barrier to employment and that employment will not jeopardize their SOFA status.
How would you describe the current landscape for military spouse employment, particularly among those stationed internationally? What work still needs to be done?
Military spouse employment continues to be a threat to our national security. With a sustained 20% unemployment rate, service members continue to leave active duty in search of a career that will support their family’s needs for dual income. This new clarity around SOFA removes the initial barrier that military families will no longer be told that they can’t work under SOFA, but constant relocations continue to be a main reason for the stubbornly high military spouse unemployment rate. We’ve removed this one barrier, but we still have a lot of work to do. We can’t keep asking our military families to choose between financial stability and service. With the dedicated network across VLP working hard behind the scenes, I know that we will continue to make progress to improve the lives of military families.
