BeirutLebanon
Beirut is a U.S. Foreign Service post in Lebanon, in the State Department's Near East bureau, with a 25% hardship differential and 25% danger pay. The current U.S. travel advisory for Lebanon is Level 4, do not travel. It is a designated R&R post. Daily life runs on Arabic, and French and English will also get you by. Bidders will find summers to 90°F, winters to 50°F, ~79 rain days/yr. This post report brings together allowances, schools, safety, weather, flights, embassy holidays, and anonymous community reviews from Foreign Service families who have served in Beirut.
What stands out
How Beirut differs from the other 255 posts, worked out from the data on this page.
- Note: 25% hardship differential plus 25% danger pay
- Note: Away-from-post schooling is funded at every grade, K to 12
- Worth knowing: Level 4 travel advisory: crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict and landmines
Against Washington, DC
The same measurements, taken the same way, for the city most bidders are leaving.
- Summers much like Washington's: the hottest month averages 90°F
- Coldest month averages lows of 50°F, 22° milder than a Washington winter
- Rain on only 79 days a year, against 124 in Washington
- Everyday prices run about 62% below US levels
- About 35 unhealthy-air days a year, against 2 in Washington
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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 Beirut's allowances actually do to your pay, estimate only
| Base salary | $100,000 |
| Hardship differential (25%)taxable, % of base | $25,000 |
| Danger pay (25%)taxable, % of base | $25,000 |
| COLA (0%)non-taxable, % of spendable income | $0 |
| Estimated annual total | $150,000 |
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 2026-11-02. Verify current rates in the DSSR and with your HR office before making career decisions.
Community & mission
Community ratings COMMUNITY-REPORTED
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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 â career pause likely ¡ 5 â 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
- Family members working locally
- De facto work arrangement: by established reciprocal practice, family members may apply for a permit to work in Lebanon.Status changes, and the HR officer at post has the final word. State's list â
- Language training
- Arabic is an FSI Category IV language: about 88 weeks of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency. English will get you by in the meantime.Applies to language-designated jobs; whether yours is one is in the bid list. FSI â
- Allowances source
- allowances.state.gov (public) ¡ fetched 2026-11-02
Housing and EFM notes are crowdsourced from the community, never from internal systems.
Location
- Local time right now
- --:--:--
- Coordinates
- 33.89, 35.50
- Region
- Near East
- Elevation
- 33 m (108 ft)
Life at post
The parts the fact sheet leaves out
Getting away
Nonstop routes for R&R, long weekends, and getting home ¡ official R&R relief point: London, UK
Cheapest weekend round trips ¡ typical fares
Also nonstop
Family visiting? US passport holders get a visa on arrival, stays up to 30 days (Free visa on arrival).
~$ = typical round-trip economy fare, refreshed monthly, plan with it, don't book with it. Routes fetched from Wikipedia (Airlines & destinations), 2026-11-01.
Health
Security & context
- Official U.S. travel advisory
- Level 4: Do Not Travel Read the full advisory âRisks the advisory names: crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict and landmines.Real data: travel.state.gov, fetched 2026-11-02
- Earthquake exposure
- Moderate seismicity, 13 quakes of M5+ within 300 km since 2000.Real data: USGS earthquake catalog.
- What crime looks like
- Governance & daily freedom
- Relations with the US
Home & daily life
- Messaging apps
- No blocking measured: WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram connect normally in network tests from Lebanon.Measured by OONI volunteers over the last 60 days, country-wide. A network test, not a legal statement.
- Power & plugs
Plug type: C/D/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.
- Household help
Getting around & fitting in
- Getting around
- Rules of the road (and the bar)
- Drives on the rightDriving age 18Drinking age 18Road deaths 16.4/100k (US ~14)
- Language
- ArabicFrench gets you byEnglish 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.
LGBTQ+ travelers
Official State Dept guidance for Lebanon ¡ page updated May 14, 2026
LGB status and/or conduct is criminalized in Lebanon, and LGB persons can face significant social stigma. Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code prohibits sexual relations, âcontradicting the laws of nature,â an offense punishable by up to one year in prison. Although Lebanese courts have interpreted this provision in different ways and prosecutions are rare, judicial decisions can vary case-to-case and LGB adults have been charged, tried, and convicted for engaging in consensual same-sex relations. Authorities have arrested LGB individuals for minor offenses, then charged them with violation of Article 534 when evidence of their LGB identity is uncovered, through searches of cell phones or other personal material. While prosecution is uncommon, short-term detentions can expose individuals to discrimination and abuse. There has been a rise in anti-LGB rhetoric from political and religious leaders, accompanied by an increase in online harassment, threats of violence, and violence against LGB persons. In August 2023, members of an anti-LGB religious group attacked an LGB friendly establishment in the Mar Mikhael neighborhood of Beirut, reportedly threatening, assaulting, and injuring patrons. Gatherings, events, or items (including those with rainbows) perceived as âpromoting homosexualityâ have the potential of being scrutinized, monitored or disbanded by security forces. 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
- Lebanese pound ¡ 89882.9 LBP/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
- 14.6% CPI inflation (2025). High inflation means posted prices age fast, and COLA reviews chase reality.
- Overall price level
- Local prices run about 38% of US prices overall (World Bank PPP, 2024). Imported and expat-favorite goods usually cost more than this average suggests.US 100%
Schools & reviews
Schools
Education allowance
The yearly maximum State reimburses per child. Office of Allowances, effective 11/01/2026.
- Kindergarten
- $10,100
- Grades 1-5
- $10,500
- Grades 6-9
- $11,200
- Grades 10-11
- $11,650
- Grade 12
- $12,250
A higher away-from-post rate of $78,650 applies for every grade. That is the rate that funds boarding school, and the Office generally sets it above the at-post rate only for grades it does not consider adequately served locally.
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Community reviews
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