A rather unusual situation

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I am new to this forum apologise for bothering with a somewhat odd issue and questions related to it. It would be really great to get any input.

I am a lawful permanent resident in the USA and joined the Air Force now in a job that is open to Non Citizens. I went through the whole enlistment process and MEPS and am now in the Delayed Entrance Program waiting for a ship out date.
My job is open to Non Citizens (obviously) but seems to require a secret clearance which I always thought was only possible for citizens to obtain. However, my recruiter had me fill out the sf 86 form and the clearance process has started already.
My employers got contacted and I was interviewed by an investigator recently at the recruiting station. The interview went expectedly well as my life was always very straight forward and I never got in trouble with the law, credit, etc.

According to my recruiter, I have to be cleared first before I can get a ship date for basic training, apparently this is a rather new rule and it makes sense to me. From what I researched online, the key term here is “Military Security Suitability Determination”,MSSD.

Here are my questions:

  1. What is the difference between the MSSD and the Security Clearance ?
  2. Is it right to assume I can NOT be given a Security Clearance as a Non Citizen ?
  3. If that is indeed the case, how will I be able to do my job that requires the clearance.
  4. How is the investigation that I am going through right now different from a “normal” investigation ? What is part of it ? Is it more lenghty than the “normal” process (and I assume longer taking) ?
  5. I keep reading on this blog that there is so much delay in the process and that things seem to take so long, but how can it be that not even a month ago, I “signed up” for the Military and already my employers and my former college were contacted and I already had my interview ?
  6. I know this is extremely hard to answer, but is there any estimate you could give on how much longer the process takes ? My recruiter mentioned it should be a total of 4 months, but from what I read here that does not seem even close to the reality.

I apologise for the many question but hope you understand my confusion. I am confident that my investigation will be a successful one without complications but it is extremely frustrating to not know if I will become an active duty member within 2 months or 15 months.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

2

Welcome and thank you for your service!

I can’t answer your question, but look forward to the replies from those who can . . .

3

Post edited for editing of post

4

Thank you for the interest and help so far, the link was indeed helpful.
So what I will receive is a MSSD not a clearance and will still be able to do the job I had signed up for, cool.

I still would appreciate any help in finding out what is included in a MSSD and how long this might take. I am so surprised my school and employers were contacted already and that my interview took place already when it has been just about a month that I am in the process and everything seems so backlogged according to this blog.

If it is anything like a TS procedure I am in for a long wait, I assume. :frowning:

5

Hi, everyone who joins military while being a non-citizen, will need MSSD, and it includes SSBI investigation. The process of getting MSSD is getting delayed these days, and if your references are already interviewed you should be able to receive the final decision soon. You can reach out to your local congressman/senator to have your MSSD process expedited.