AmmanJordan
Amman is a U.S. Foreign Service post in Jordan, in the State Department's Near East bureau, with a 20% hardship differential and 5% post allowance (COLA). The current U.S. travel advisory for Jordan is Level 3, reconsider travel. It is an R&R post with 1 trip. Daily life runs on Arabic, and English will also get you by. Bidders will find 3 international schools for mission families and dry desert climate; hot summers, chilly wet winters with rare snow. This post report brings together allowances, schools, safety, weather, flights, embassy holidays, and anonymous community reviews from Foreign Service families who have served in Amman.
Amman is the region's calm center, a hilly white-stone capital where you host every friend you've ever had, because Petra, Wadi Rum, and the Dead Sea are day trips. A massive mission, real jobs for spouses, and hospitality that redefines the word.
Served in Amman? Leave an anonymous review, the next family bidding on Amman gets a real answer.
Write a reviewSnapshot
Climate & weather
Temperature range, F
Rain days
Air quality, monthly PM2.5 (ug/m3)
Green under 12 (good) · amber to 35 (moderate) · red above (unhealthy for sensitive groups)
Real data: Open-Meteo archive (2022-2024 daily, temperature, rain, daylight) and Open-Meteo air quality API (CAMS, hourly PM2.5 2022-2025), aggregated to monthly normals.
Pay & allowances
Paycheck simulator
What Amman's allowances actually do to your pay, estimate only
| Base salary | $100,000 |
| Hardship differential (20%)taxable, % of base | $20,000 |
| COLA (5%)non-taxable, % of spendable income | $2,425 |
| Estimated annual total | $122,425 |
Estimate only, for planning purposes; figures may not reflect the most recent DSSR updates. COLA is applied to spendable income (approximated here at 48.5% of salary, the official tables vary by salary and family size). Grade/step fills from the official Overseas Schedule (includes Overseas Comparability Pay); taxes and premium-pay caps are not modeled. Allowance rates: allowances.state.gov, fetched 2026-09-21. Verify current rates in the DSSR and with your HR office before making career decisions.
Community & mission
Community ratings COMMUNITY-REPORTED
Loading community ratings
What do these categories mean?
- Housing
- Community average (1-5) for assigned housing: size, condition, commute, and how the housing pool compares to expectations. Housing type (government-leased, compound, apartments) is on each post page.
- School rating
- Community average (1-5) of how families rated the schools their kids actually attended: academics, support for arriving mid-year, special needs, and how happy the kids were. Reviewers' grade levels vary, read individual reviews for your kids' ages.
- Morale
- Community average (1-5) for overall post morale, the intangible sum of community, leadership, workload, and whether people would bid it again. Often the number seasoned bidders read first.
- Internet (community rating)
- How livable the internet actually felt (1-5): reliability and VPN-friendliness, not just headline speed. Can diverge from the measured Mbps, outages and throttling show up here first.
- Spouse / partner employment
- Community average (1-5) of how realistic it is for an accompanying spouse or partner (EFM) to work at this post. It reflects three paths: jobs inside the mission (EFM positions), local-economy work (depends on the bilateral work agreement and language), and remote work for a U.S. employer (depends on time zone and internet). 1 ≈ career pause likely · 5 ≈ multiple realistic options.
- Healthcare
- Community average (1-5) for healthcare at post: local care you would actually use, English-speaking providers, and how much falls back on regional medevac, a real factor for families and chronic conditions.
Foreign Service overlay
- Housing
- Apartments and duplexes in Abdoun/Deir Ghbar near the embassy
- EFM employment
- Very large mission with a deep EFM job market.
- Allowances source
- allowances.state.gov (public) · fetched 2026-09-21
- Allowance trend (4 cycles)
- Diff.2023: 10% ▼COLA2023: 10% ▲
Housing and EFM notes are crowdsourced from the community, never from internal systems.
Location
- Local time right now
- --:--:--
- Coordinates
- 31.95, 35.93
- Region
- Near East
- Elevation
- 764 m (2,507 ft)
Life at post
The parts the fact sheet leaves out
Getting away
Nonstop routes for R&R, long weekends, and getting home · 1 R&R trip at this post · official R&R relief point: London, UK
Cheapest weekend round trips · typical fares
Also nonstop
Family visiting? US passport holders need an eVisa or visa on arrival (VOA not available at King Hussein/Allenby Bridge).
~$ = typical round-trip economy fare, refreshed monthly, plan with it, don't book with it. Routes fetched from Wikipedia (Airlines & destinations), 2026-09-04.
Petra, Wadi Rum stargazing, Dead Sea floats, Jerash's Roman ruins, Red Sea diving in Aqaba, the greatest-hits list never runs out, and regional hops open up when the map cooperates.
Food & groceries
- The food scene
- Mansaf, falafel and hummus that ruin you for anywhere else, unbeatable produce, Levantine sweets.
- Hard to find
- Pork (specialty stores only); alcohol is available but taxed hard.
- The community packing list
- Pork for the freezer, decent-value wine, specialty US brands, and hiking gear you'll actually use weekly.
Health
Strong private hospitals, Amman is a regional medical destination. Most families never need a medevac.
Security & context
- Official U.S. travel advisory
- Level 3: Reconsider Travel Read the full advisory ↗Real data: travel.state.gov, fetched 2026-09-21
- Earthquake exposure
- Moderate seismicity, 2 quakes of M5+ within 300 km since 2000.Real data: USGS earthquake catalog.
- What crime looks like
- Very low; harassment and theft are rare even by regional standards. Traffic is the actual daily hazard.
- Governance & daily freedom
- Stable monarchy; efficient security services with a light public touch. Speech about the palace is off-limits; daily life is relaxed.
- Relations with the US
- Close US ally with an enormous American presence and a warm hospitality culture.
Home & daily life
- Power & plugs
Plug type: C/D/F/G · 230V 50Hz , US plugs won't fit, bring adapters. Phone and laptop chargers are fine on 230V; only US-only appliances (hair dryers, kitchen gear) need a transformer.
- The housing you'll actually get
- Abdoun and Deir Ghbar apartments and duplexes near the embassy, stone-built, spacious, with rooftop views. Hills mean stairs, and stone is cold in January, ask about the heating.
- Household help
- Available and common, housekeepers run $400-600/month, often live-in through established networks, and childcare options are solid.
- Pets
- Quarantine: None with paperworkStart prep: ~1 month
- Summer cargo embargoes and snub-nosed breed bans on the usual carriers. Routine import and good vets in Abdoun. Street cats will adopt you; resistance is futile.
- Official import requirements for Jordan (USDA APHIS) →
Getting around & fitting in
- Getting around
- Uber and Careem work well, and most families ship a car for the wadi-and-castle circuit. Traffic is Middle East normal; parking is the true hardship.
- Rules of the road (and the bar)
- Drives on the rightDriving age 18Drinking age 18Road deaths 17/100k (US ~14)
- Language
- ArabicEnglish gets you by
Arabic here means the local dialect, which can differ a lot from the one you studied.
Tell the posts page what you speak to filter all posts by your languages. It is never shown to anyone.
- Arabic opens the culture and Jordanians are patient teachers; English works widely in Amman. Even taxi-Arabic transforms your tour.
- Expat & community scene
- One of the biggest US missions anywhere plus UN and NGO ecosystems, endless clubs, dinners, and a deep bench of potential friends. Costs creep upward; the COLA earns its keep.
LGBTQ+ travelers
Official State Dept guidance for Jordan · page updated May 14, 2026
There are no legal restrictions on same-sex sexual relations or the organization of LGB events in Jordan. However, laws against adultery or breaches of modesty may be used against LGB travelers. Public displays of affection between individuals in general, and especially of the same sex, are not considered culturally acceptable. Foreign nationals exhibiting such behavior or expressing themselves in a manner perceived to be outside of traditional sex norms in terms of dress or appearance may face greater risk of official and societal harassment and/or be targets of violence. Gay and lesbian Jordanians frequently hide their sexuality, even from family members. Family members who discover that a relative is LGB may target them for “honor” crimes. See our LGB Travel Information page and section 6 of our Human Rights report for further details.
Same-sex spouse and MOH accreditation is decided post by post and is not published publicly. Community reviews are the best read on how it works here in practice, and glifaa (LGBTQ+ employees of foreign-affairs agencies) maintains member resources.
Money & prices
- Local currency
- Jordanian dinar · 0.71 JOD/USD. Has held steady against the dollar over 24 months. A weakening currency stretches a dollar salary further; a strengthening one quietly shrinks it.
- Local inflation
- 1.8% CPI inflation (2025). High inflation means posted prices age fast, and COLA reviews chase reality.
- Overall price level
- Local prices run about 42% of US prices overall (World Bank PPP, 2025). Imported and expat-favorite goods usually cost more than this average suggests.US 100%
Medications & prescriptionsADHD stimulants: Restricted, documentation required
- ADHD stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin class)
- Restricted, documentation required. JFDA approval is needed for controlled-class imports; the embassy health unit can advise on the current process.
- Other controlled classes (benzos, opioids, sleep meds)
- Opioids and benzos require documentation; quantities are limited.
- Refills on the ground
- Amman pharmacies are strong on European brands; US-specific meds by pouch.
Curated snapshot, not legal advice: rules change and enforcement varies. Verify every medication by substance name with the INCB listing and post's health unit before you bid, and again before you pack. Community reviews keep the refill reality current.
Things to do5 picks from people who lived there · links open Google Maps
Schools & reviews
Schools
ACS anchors the mission with a strong US-style program, while IAA and ABS bring IB depth. School traffic is real, Abdoun housing exists for a reason.
The Amman directory is brand new. Served here? Pass along the pediatrician or dry cleaner the next family will need.
Free with an account, no Premium required. Recommendations only, never ratings.
Community reviews
Anonymous by default · countingReviews publish through the Post Report form and appear here immediately. Loading the latest...
Deep researchCurated links for going past what fits on one page
External sites open in a new tab. PostCompass links out rather than scraping, public data stays with its source and its context.
Keep exploring
Posts like Amman
Closest overall profiles across all metrics, worth a look before you finalize a list.