Government shut downs in January and February probably slammed the brakes on things for a good bit. Nice to see that things are moving again.
Remember that it wasn’t until late March that congress actually passed the final funding bill.
It is essential to bear in mind the basic, but easily overlooked, truth.
Agencies requiring clearances are NOT very interested in your aptitude, skills, education, enthusiasm, etc. These factors all run a far distant second to one’s ability to obtain that clearance. Nothing else matters!
Simply not true . . .
As an Investigator here are some things I have seen that slow down your case.
- If you are getting a reinvestigation, please delete anything outside of your coverage period. Keep in mind there are some ever questions that you must always list, some 7 year questions and ten year questions depending on what you filled out. Update your SU and references etc.
- You must list all company acquisitions. An example is don’t tell my you have been at perspecta for the last 15 years. You would list perspecta, DXC, HPE, HP etc.
- You need to list job locations. If you go to one location for meetings that not an issue but majority of time or two days here and three days there or you are at a JL for several months yes you should list along with SU.
Also please come with foreign contact information, former SU info etc. we will ask you to provide updated info or any info you didn’t list on the form so you may as well be busy getting in touch with those we need to schedule to make sure they are where you left them and get the information on the form. It saves your Investigator extra typing, and scheduling as different parts of your case can move more simultaneously.
The better you complete your paperwork and the more honest you are, the better I can get my job done and get your case to close on my end.
That’s not the case at all. People with highly sought-after skills jump to the front of the line and are adjudicated before more regular applicants. like U.S.-born citizens who can speak Russian, Farsi, Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Urdu, Turkish fluently/natively and/or have pecialized technical and computer skills get processed faster.
Of course, they want people who can acquire and hold a clearance, but to say the various agencies don’t care about your skills just isn’t true.
From my limited case sample, I agree with this. At the agency where I’m “processing” (beginning to hate that word…), my former colleague who had great credentials got cleared in 4 months for ts sci poly.
And the wait is finally over. Investigation was adjudicated favorably by my agency on June 13th, nearly 14 months after the investigation started. Finally got my T5.
Good luck everyone, thanks for sharing the info and support!
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That’s great, congratulations! Can you give a general timeline and the agency?
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April 2017: Investigation initiated
May 1, 2017: Subject Interview
January 2018: Final character reference interviewed
April 17, 2018: OPM returns investigation to agency
June 13, 2018: Investigation certified by agency
I work for the Citizenship & Immigration Service in DHS.
Quick question, just heard that the Pentagon was taking over for OPM and they were doing renewals for current clearance holders the first year. Does that mean that people who turned in their SF-86 with in the last year and half have to wait bow even longer? Just trying to get a grasp on what i just read.
Hello,
Submitted e-qib: 6/30/2017 (T3, secret; DoD contractor)
Opened: 7/20/2017
Denied interim: 8/23/2017
Nothing afterwards…
Born Middle East area, haven’t been back ever since (12 yrs)
No foreign contacts
At the time of application, 1 sibling (US citizen) studying abroad and 1 sibling was a non-US
If someone is/was in same situation, please let me know how it turned out or how long it took [has been].
I’ve always said that if you really want something to be completely screwed up let the government (or any large bureaucracy for that matter) try to reform it.
Today I heard on the radio that there is a proposal to transfer all investigations to DoD. How does that solve anything?
Anyway to get back to your question, hopefully it won’t slow things down. You wont have to start all over again.
Probably not.
I figured that. I’ve read and heard a couple ways how they were gonna handle it and couldn’t get an actual straight answer. Army Times stated that the first year they were just gonna work on renewing clearances but nothing about us tutored ones who have been in limbo for a year plus. I just broke the 300 day mark and I feel like I’m in prison.
Thank you for your feedback. I don’t think that would be of use to me as I know from my SO that mine investigation is still “open” whatever that means.
THAT IS INSANE. How do they let this happen?! I have been waiting for a year for Secret but no word not a peep from anyone.
I’m far from surprised that you were denied an interim. First, they don’t give them out as easily as they did years ago but, more importantly, since you are foreign born and still have family abroad, your file is going to be looked at more closely.
It has been a long time since you have heard anything, ten months . . . That seems odd. Have you had any contact with the company that wants to hire you? What have they told you?
There is plenty of unclassified work that needed/needs to be done, so I was brought in as soon as I accepted and cleared background investigation and drug test.
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To answer your question, only response I get is that my investigation is still open.
A friend of mine who submitted his SF86 in February received his DoD secret earlier this month. Total time was 4 months. That’s the fastest I’ve ever heard of. He has quite a lengthy list of foreign travel too. I was quite surprised. Perhaps they really are making some headway on (at the very least) new applicants.
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25 months of waiting, been 13 months since I’ve heard anything. I check in with my POC at the agency every few months and get the same “still in processing” note. Medical release forms I signed 13 months ago are now out of date and were never used.
It’s kind of sad: if the job were to come through tomorrow I would decline it, as I’m now excited to attend graduate school in the fall and move on with my life and career. I imagine they must lose lots of candidates like me with only one thing that comes up (mental health issues that have been stable for years without issue) but are stellar otherwise. Oh well.
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