Am I eligible right now or should I wait

I am a US citizen but went to high school in Canada. I was arrested in 2004 in my senior year of high school in Canada for uttering threats, possession of dangerous weapons (bb gun and knife) and possession for the purpose of trafficking (painkillers). I had the drug and weapons charge dropped and was given a conditional discharge for the uttering charge which meant after 3 years my record would be clean. I was 18 at the time. I moved to the US to pursue college and have lived in the US since 2005. I have not had any criminal issues but I was fired from part-time seasonal jobs. I lied about being at the job when in fact I wasn’t and I did this with 4-5 different employers from 2010-2011.

In 2015 I was also given a citation for aggressive driving which in my state is a class 2 misdemeanor. I had the charges dropped to a traffic infraction.

My question is: Will I be eligible for a clearance based on the above issues. I’ve spoken to two clearance attorney’s and they told me to wait the 10 year period so that I will not have to disclose the traffic incident in 2015 or the job issue. I was fired from those jobs for falsely reporting my time but I was never criminally charged. They did say I will have to report the criminal issues from 2004 but hopefully the fact that I was young hopefully helps.

I wouldn’t put all of my eggs in the clearance basket but I suspect that you have a decent or better shot a getting cleared.

The fact that the drug charges were dropped is irrelevant because you were charged. You did it and that’s what matters. They are going to look at the incident not the result. The same goes with 2015 charges and even the firings.

Most of this can be mitigated by your age at the time. College and teen year activities don’t take as long to mitigate. You need to show that this stuff is behind you. How is your job history since? Falsifying time records is a big deal but, again, youth excuses much.