After reading through the site. I guess I need a little more understanding of the sponsoring aspect and background aspect of the process.
The company pulls your history and does a sniff check on credit, background etc?
Who makes the determination as to who will get accepted?
I read in one post that the FSO normally does a preliminary screening @amberbunny ?
So the fso at my company would know high level if it’s even worth submitting me before I even get the job offer?
I just submitted my candorous SF86 and am just curious as to how the process will work.
Any former/previous BIs I don’t mind sharing those sections to get opinions…
I can speak to my current process. A person applies, a manager expresses interest and interviews. If the manager wants to move forward, they are scheduled for a Security Interview. My job is to screen for known adjudication issues that would eliminate them from consideration: sub 600 FICO, MJ use within a year and if you are not older than 24, misuse of prescription meds, felony arrests, violence convictions etc. If I find nothing to deny the application I give them the SF86, and go over it in detail. We ask for it back within 10 days but understand if a person needs a few more days. Then we screen the form for missing dates, or twice used references, or missing employment info, etc. We catch a tremendous amount of errors at this stage. Normally we end up reviewing them 4 times to weed out the most egregious mistakes. From there we submit for processing after the contracting officer signs the request. Then you wait. A long time. Hopefully I caught and fixed all errors. If not it is rejected for rework. I hate that. So I put great effort into catching errors. So we are the sponsoring company for the clearance request. Once they get cleared, we then call the applicant to offer a paid position. Technically we made the offer when we submitted them but if they fail to clear they are not brought on board. If you turn paperwork in showing you are delinquent on payments but do not reflect a payment plan, I reject the SF86. Likewise if you deny drug use in my interview but turn in a form admitting to a lot of drug use. “One of” situations from many years ago are fine, but if you reveal significant use after telling me zero…I’m gonna call and have a follow up discussion about suddenly remembering. If you will lie to my face…I’m fairly certain I do not want you here. .
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Would your prelim screening be tweaked based on the type of clearance? I know I’m reading a previous post all of your ew staff must have a clearance before they start.
I might not have read the part about if the applicant was over 24 or not, but Would you personally consider an old felony or are you really just trying to limit various adjudication issues?
My fso has said nothing to me other than briefing me on my responsibility for security, emailing my sf86 package, and being my point of contact for any future issues that may arise…
They pulled my background and credit report before I was onboarded.
Have you noticed if the ban the box has impacted your position or clearance approval in general?
The “ban the Box” movement has not impacted clearance adjudication in my estimation. I recently received a “no go” on a person having a 14 year old felony for drugs. It was outside 10 years, he married, claimed he left this life behind, no other legal or financial issues present, so I took the chance. My client agreed, but wanted the Poly and full clearance, not bringing him on Secret or TS no Poly. Was he honest on his Poly and SF86? I will never know. I suspect he played down the situations and ended up with a lack of candor issue. Meaning he was not completely truthful after given multiple chances. That said, I read cases here of significant arrests, charges, drugs, etc, and they overcame it all, appealed the denial and won their case. I fully believe they apply the whole person concept and very few “one of” issues sink your boat. Even a serious crime can be mitigated by time, and age. I have no issues submitting people with old criminal records if they fixed them and live a clean life. I need see a history of overcoming these items though. I use the same overall screen to determine if a person is suitable. The position they apply for tells me if they need the higher clearance or not. Under the whole person, an old felony needs adjudicated against how the person lived their life since then.
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Thanks for your industry insight. There is a difference between law offenders and habitual criminals. I’m thankful a few of you here see that and they are using the whole person concept
I used to do a lot of free work for a DoD department as a consultant, I was literally on a military base 5-6 times a month and as soon as I plead out to signing a document a decade ago,I’m banned from military bases for 10 years because of blanket felony policies.
From my perspective and from my personal experience there are plenty of people out here that just haven’t gotten caught.
the only thing worse than going to prison… is going back. You don’t have to worry about me. My 18 months, even though it’s a relatively short period for federal prison, was long enough for a few lifetimes.