I submitted my e-QIP in August of 2016, had my interview the first week of February of 2018, and got my 2nd date on the ATS site on June 7 of this year. I am waiting on a Q clearance for DOE. I understand that waiting on the 3rd date is considered the adjudication phase of the process. August of 2018 will make 2 years of total waiting. The majority of folks I work with received answers much quicker than this so I find it to be a struggle every week that goes by having not gotten an answer yet.
Should I be inquiring about the status of my clearance, and if so, with whom should I speak with?
I have already been told by my sponsoring security dept that the ball is no longer in our court its a waiting game and it this point and that no news is good news. I realize that patience is key here but any pieces of info that can be obtained at this point would be greatly appreciated.
Please let me know of any legitimate contacts that may be able to provide information on what is happening at this point in the process.
Normally if there is bad news it comes fast. If it takes longer some infer it means they did not develop something serious enough to deny the clearance. You would be the best person to know if you had factors that were challenging. Were you completely honest and forthright about drugs and work history, finances, foreign connections and the like? If you were not this could be the reason. If you were…and you just had a final meeting in June of 2018…I think you are still moving forward. Really, until you meet with your investigator the timelines may not be moving. They could be backlogged, working on another higher operational need etc. Once you get the actual meeting with the investigator then you know someone actually has your case and is working it. It takes on average 18 months to 24 months to go from zero (no clearance) to 60 (top secret full poly), for my client. Once I submit the SF86 it takes an easy 2 months before the system reflects it opened the investigation, and another 2 months before the investigator contacts them. They may or may not have done the records check at that point. (Chime in BI). From the date of the investigation meetings it takes a good year.
Thank you very much for your reply. I have been hearing the same things that you mentioned from several others that have already gone through the process. While everybody’s situation is different, several things that you highlighted remain consistent. I was open, honesty, and thorough…the process has actually gone as smooth as I could have hoped for, its just been a slow grind, exercising the muscle of patience but hopefully I am very close. I have come to appreciate the support of this site, to see the conversations of others who can relate I think is a good thing.
You could send an email to your HR contact and have them potentially look into it for you. Something along the lines of it appears that your case is in adjudication per the ATS, you are excited to start, and you were wondering how long the process usually takes. They might be able to reach out to the security department to see if your case has been assigned to an adjudication specialist and whether or not it is being actively worked on.
Below are some useful links pertaining to the DOE clearance process.
Hopefully you hear something soon. In my experience I always hear something from the government on a Tuesday or Thursday, so it might be right around the corner.
This is some very helpful information I’m going to follow that advice to see where it leads. If I get useful information I’ll update you, thank you very much.
I appreciate the useful links also I bet those days are work days that doesn’t include the weekends which means I’m not too far over but far enough to inquire.
I love it how those who are cleared make it back to the site and lay out their full timelines for others to observe and again, I know everyone’s situation is different but I will do my best to come back and do the same for those who are earlier in the process… and yes hopefully it is right around the corner.
Also I agree with your observation about Tuesdays and Thursdays this has been my experience also, there’s seems to be quite a bit of activity on those days, in fact on a Thursday is when I got the second date.
Still no 3rd date but I was able to verify that my case is not lost in the shuffle of things, thank goodness. I am still in the adjudication stage, ball’s in their court, they just need more “runtime”, not sure what all this means time-wise but I will say that this has been an excellent opportunity for me to exercise the discipline of patience, its been a long journey, approaching 25 months and still not sure where the end is.
I try not to be discourage, as I often hear about others who have been waiting just as long or longer.than myself. One day closer with each passing day is about the only way to look at this point.
How are events posted to the system (ATS or any other system used by an agency requiring clearance)? For instance, if a candidate completes each step, subject interview, security interview, poly, psych, etc., is the successful completion of each stage posted/uploaded to a system? And if each stage is “successful/low risk/no issues,” is there still an “adjudication” period? Or as soon as all stages are successfully completed, it generally leads to a cleared status notification (w/o the extensive adjudication period)?