Are You Experiencing Security Clearance Processing Delays?

I submitted my SF86 and fingerprints for a TS clearance on 17 Oct 16 and had my credit report pulled on 29 Oct 16. I contacted the hiring agency’s security manager to check the status of my investigation and was told it is “open”. I have not been contacted by anyone in regards to the investigation. Should I assume that an investigator has been assigned to my case and when should i expect to be contacted?

There are reports from people on this forum as well as over at the Federal Soup forums that it is taking several months for the initial contact, sometimes nearly a year. However, others are contacted fairly soon. Unfortunately the several months wait seems to be more likely.

As far as whether or not an investigator has been assigned, keep in mind that there may be one than one person doing the field work if you have lived and worked in different regions. Once a part of the case is assigned to an investigator, I think they are under the gun to get it turned around pretty quickly.

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I have lived my entire life in the DC area. You still think 6 months?

That will certainly help if only one investigator has to work your case. But the DC-MD-VA area has the highest concentration of people requiring clearances and probably the heaviest backlog.

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DC area person here and I have been waiting 12 months…interviews done, investigation closed in October.

What level of security clearance are you going for?

Makes sense. Plus inauguration. All hands on deck for new personnel. We all get bumped.

So how long are Secret clearances for DoD contractors taking at the moment? Submitted eQIP May 13. Denied Interim June 29. Credit pulled June 30. Nothing since. No contact from an investigator or anything. When asking OPM or my FSO, they just state that the investigation is “Pending”. Should I expect up to 18-24 months? Just reading a lot about people in adjudication over a year and that’s worrying me with already being 8 months in and my investigation hasnt even begun yet (assuming since I haven’t been contacted by an investigator yet). With the inauguration and all this investigation process “reform” talk, I’m scared my file will get put in the bottom of another pile when they finally get around to making changes. Any insight as to what I should expect would be greatly appreciated.

Is anyone else waiting for a NACLC clearance? Most of the discussion has been regarding S/TS clearances. I’m unclear if NACLC clearance investigations are lumped together with Secret or not. I’m hoping NACLC will take less time than S or TS investigations…

I can’t answer this for sure but I can tell you most people have been waiting over 12-18 months I have even seen 24 months…I have already had interviews etc…and that was back in March 2016 and I am still waiting…Hang on…

18-24 months for SECRET? What company would even continue sponsoring it. I assume you are referring to TS/SCI mistakenly.

My FSO told me today any investigations are taking anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. I have a hard time believing any company would sponsor investigations that go that long.

No, I’m waiting for a secret. And yeah couldn’t see the company sponsoring it that long, just considering that length of time a very real possibility. Obviously, I’m finally starting to interview for full time positions in my career path after holding a temporary job to get me along. I graduated in May so I pretty much set my career back 8 months.

With already being 8 months in with NOTHING done on my investigation (no references contacted, no contact from an investigator, nothing) paired with many stories of waiting in adjudication over a year, I feel 18 months is optimistic.

I guess I can see why a lot of contractors rescind offers after interims are denied. I was just “lucky” my hiring company wasn’t one of them.

And sorry, not trying to come off as so gloom and doom. Just frustrating going from thinking all that work for a master’s degree paid off with a dream job to setting my career back 8+ months

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I am in the exact same position as you. Graduated with my master’s in May, received a job offer for a perfect job that I was really excited about under the impression I could start while the investigation was ongoing, but after having my start date pushed 6 or 7 times over the course of two months, they just recently told me I have to wait until my investigation is fully adjudicated. My offer hasn’t been rescinded yet, but I am not terribly optimistic about waiting for an indefinite amount of time - especially since I could end up being denied a clearance for some unexpected reason, or the length of time for the investigation could exceed the length of time left in my actual contract.

It’s a really awful position to be in. Good luck to you. I wouldn’t wish this situation on anyone.

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I work for a defense contractor. Over the past year we hired a number of folks without clearances, mainly new grads. We brought them on right away because we have a good amount of unclassified work for them to do. But some years ago, the situation was different, and we were processing these folks like the government does… namely, making what amounts to a “tentative job offer” and waiting til they were cleared to bring them on. So it really depends on what kind of work the employer has.

Oh yeah and some of these folks are coming up on their one year mark for processing their secret clearances. I think one person did get cleared in nine months. But compare this with the situation about 2-3 years ago when it was taking only six months.

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Literally same has happened to me. It was the start date getting pushed back that kept me from going for another full time job. Now with the word that they have to wait for full adjudication, don’t have a choice now.

Good luck to you as well.

Thanks for the reply. So the average secret clearance is going well into a year?

Keeping the job needing the clearance in my back pocket as long as they will sponsor it since I don’t see my chances of finding another offer like it coming along. Impossible to find a job as an engineer after telling them you will leave when you get your clearance and that it could be a month or two down the road. They won’t break even with you after training until 6-12 months in. I really have no choice other than to be not quite as forthcoming as to my true intentions just to support myself with all these student loans. I feel a little better knowing that if I screw a company, it’ll be 4++ months in rather than a potential for 1-2.

Then again, hope leaving a company after a short time period like this for another won’t be a dealbreaker for a clearance renewal 10 years (or whenever it is for secret) down the road. I’m sure it’ll be a bad reference in the future and can certainly be seen as unethical

I have seen a few replies that state that their interims have been denied within a 2 month period after their eqip submissions. Is the interim time frame around 3-6 months?

I’m not sure I can make that statement, I can just say that based on what we’ve seen here for our folks getting their first time clearance, 9-12 months seems to be the range with a tendency toward 12 months (if not a little more)

@endless88 I can’t provide a similar data point on interims as we don’t seem to do the interim thing here.