Appealing a Suitability Denial

Assuming your background investigation is already completed, there will be no investigation per se. There will be a higher level review of the adjudicator’s rationale for his/her decision and whatever you submitted as the basis of your appeal. When decisions are reviewable by someone outside the office that made the original decision, I believe both the original decision and the appeal decision are more reasonable and fair. As an excepted service applicant you are not entitled to a review by the MSPB. A review by a supervisor in the same office as the original adjudicator can be somewhat arbitrary and capricious.

Assuming that a background investigation was completed, you are in the adjudication stage. If your appeal is favorable, you’ll be hired, unless your job also requires a security clearance. If so, your case will be transferred from the HR office to the security office for a security clearance determination. If a background investigation was not completed (e.g. you were rejected at the initial HR screening), then you still have a long way to go.

Thank you again for your reply and the additional information. I am certain that I’m through the BI phase and I was simply rejected once I made it to the adjudication phase, but I guess I technically have no way of knowing this.

I accepted the COE and was notified of my suitability rejection seven months later. This was after undergoing several interviews with an investigator, polygraph, psych evaluation, etc. This timeline alone would more than likely signify that I was rejected in the adjudication phase, yes?

After submitting my written letter with mitigating circumstances, I believe I have a good shot at a successful appeal. I just wish I knew when I would hear something back from the agency.

I should also let it be known that I have contacted HR numerous times since the submission of my letter, and have received no response. I’m not quite sure I still have a POC, either, so I’m at a loss on how I might get further information regarding my case.

Hello Sir,

I would like to ask a question if I may: I got hire with new contract company to begin Jan. 2020 I was working with another at the time and quit for new position. On mid Feb. found out previous company filed security violation which was dated 12/15/2020. I mentioned to current employee and lost my job due to that! now I am trying to find new job but, I am unable to “loss of jurisdiction” Since Feb. I have tried to reach some one to follow up with this incident/violation and got no luck. People who summited violation are not responding to e-mails or calls. Information got from a prespective employee was the it shows Red Flag therefor are unable to hired me!?? Its been more than two months since incident and over one month not able to work on any contract, I am very desperate any help with information on what can I do will help.
Thank you for your time.

Angel_Rguez: Sorry but there is no solution for your problem, except to find an employer who will sponsor your clearance and who is willing to wait for the Incident Report to be adjudicated. I recommend you get a copy of your clearance database record (JPAS/DISS) to see exactly what is in the Incident Report. If it’s a relatively minor issue, you can show it to a prospective employer and hope that it will influence them to sponsor you. If your Incident Report was properly entered in JPAS, prospective employers can only see that an Incident Report exists; they can’t see what’s in the report.

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thank you Sir, for your time in reply my message. I tried that and was told can only request the FOI? something about getting my privacy personal record which I had request it and called more than twice to follow up with customer service but, they keep saying they email it or US Mail. It been over two month now since, I request my copy!?

Any suggestions???

I successfully appealed a preliminary suitability denial at State. I hired an attorney and that helped quite a bit. They responded to my appeal in two weeks, which was in line with the timeline they provided me upon my inquiry. I wouldn’t be surprised if the current COVID crisis delays these processes, however.

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Thanks for your reply! It’s good to hear your story of success. It’s frustrating for me to know that they both provided you with a timeline and got back to you so quickly with an answer, but I suppose that’s the difference between DoD and State. Lol.

You’ve got to figure out whether your processing was terminated during BI screening or during BI? major reason for terminating processing during BI is when a disqualifying information was developed.

How might I go about doing this? I feel as though the rejected me after the BI was complete, but I’m unsure. It’s not as though the agency is going to get back to me regarding this question, or anything else for that matter. They’re the worst with correspondence.

submit a FIOA request. Check DCSA’s website on how to submit a FIOA request?
it appears that there was some kind of disqualifying information which would mean no viable appeal but you probably want to know what the info was for future applications.

I’ve received conflicting information on this. I thought about submitting a FOIA request prior to the submission of my written appeal, but I was told from a fairly reliable source that you don’t always need to do so in order to have a successful appeal. He also didn’t think I’d receive the information from my FOIA request before the conclusion of the 30 day deadline.

But now, it seems prudent to wait until I receive an answer on my appeal before submitting a FOIA request because I don’t want to ruffle feathers, etc, especially since I don’t have the protection of the MSPB as an excepted service hire. There are just a lot of things at play, all of which seem to compound the situation and confuse me further.

Sure. If there’s a good contact, please post. Email or phone or whatever. Not sure how else to get in touch

I also successfully appealed a DoS preliminary suitability denial. I didn’t hire an attorney and wasn’t given a timeline of when I would get a response on my appeal but I was given 60 days from the date of my suitability denial letter to send an appeal. I sent it mid March and was not expecting an answer for months (not to mention I was bracing for a less than favorable response too). I was shocked that I got a favorable response in less than 10 days. I was told to reach out to Registrar for next steps in hiring process and now with Covid it seems that everything has been greatly delayed or paused all together. I’ve sent 4 inquiries with no successful answer besides automatic responses that my note was received.

Wow, if only DoD was that responsive. I don’t even care at this point if they review my appeal right away, but a note saying they have received my multiple inquiries would be very nice.

Has anyone here ever heard a successful case of an applicant to a three-letter agency being granted a clearance after applying again following a suitability denial for the same agency? I’ve heard conflicting stories about whether agencies ever consider old rejected applicants, regardless of the possibility that previous issues might have been mitigated.

Yes. However this person already had a clearance and was given the “Apply in 1 year” denial letter.

Hi there -

This is very encouraging! I plan on appealing my decision. Would you be available to discuss? Thank you!

Hi there -

I am in a similar boat. Could I contact you for more information?