DIA Adjudication Stall

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hi all,

I’ve never posted on here before but I don’t know where to turn to.

I applied to the DIA’s Fall 2022 Hiring Event and got my COE on December 6.

I filled out E-Qip in January and passed my poly after two tries by the end of that month.

By February 17 I met with my BI. We had a re-interview on March 28 to answer some questions on prior drug use from several years ago.

By April 3 my BI told me his investigation was over.

So far so good. But here is where the fun begins.

By the first week of May, I am unclear as to what the situation is. I email the generic HR email inquiring about who my new security POC is. Within the week, the individual calls me and tells me they are waiting for documents from a previous investigation for an internship with a TLA that rescinded their offer to me. I didn’t obscure this and I was upfront about it the whole process.

The phone call was pretty abrupt and several of my questions remained unanswered. Specifically, I want to know if I am in adjudication or still being investigated. I emailed my POC and he did not answer me after two weeks. I kept trying and nothing.

By the end of May, I emailed HR to explain that my POC was unresponsive. On June 1, he responds and says:

‘We are still processing and working your file, and we will advise accordingly.

If you have any questions regarding the process outside of Security, please contact your HR point of contact for information regarding the hiring process.

If I can assist with any other questions, please feel free to contact me directly.’

The next week, security customer service emails me ,seemingly sent by HR, and is a bit more specific:

‘ Your case is still being processed. Once it is complete, you will be referred to the Hiring Pool to continue the process.’

Okay, so now I’m even more confused. It seems to me that I am IN adjudication as that’s the last step before the hiring pool right? I reached out to my POC after receiving this email to ask if my assumption is correct and nothing. Now the waiting begins.

Compared to some threads on here, this seems absurd and silly. I know my process has been faster than most. But I’m incredibly anxious that I will get stuck in adjudication (my last name starts with a letter close to the end of the alphabet). I’m leaving my current job in August, no if ands or buts, just graduated from grad school, moving in with my girlfriend in August, and I expected to have been cleared by now based on the pace the process was going on grumblings from the inside about expedited processes.

If I am approaching the end of the process I am reticent about getting a job only to burn that bridge within a month or two.

I’ve seen people suggest leveraging congressional offices to put pressure on the system but I wonder if that is too extreme at this point in time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

2

This can take a lot of time as there is nothing driving the other agency to put any priority on this task other than being a good member of the community.

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4

By the way, to offer some more commentary on your overall situation…

There used to be a website, federalsoup.com where people shared experiences with federal jobs and trying to get them. The DIA forum was one of the most active. Some people reported experiences very similar to yours. Others got through the process very quickly. The one thing they all had in common was extreme difficulty getting any meaningful information out of the DIA HR or Security offices.

By the way, once you do clear and get placed into the Hiring Pool, it is the same dance all over again: some get placed quickly, others waited for months… some never did get called.

It is a process that is not optimized for the applicant.

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5

Totally agreed to the talent pool wait. I was cleared pretty quickly (like 8 months considering that was my first TS SCI with Ci poly and I was just naturalized for 2 years!) but then the wait in the talent pool was ridiculous. I ended up getting a local gov gig…however for some reason at the time after I was cleared, I received a lot of messages from contracting companies…and was told they can pick up the clearance…

Good luck to the Op!

6

Yes, as of a few years ago (and maybe to this day), DIA would update JPAS/DISS/whatever the new name is with clearance info once an applicant was granted a final clearance, even if they had not yet received their final job offer. NSA does not do this and who knows what CIA does.

A few people on the old federal soup forums reported getting contractor jobs after they were cleared by DIA and they were still waiting for the FJO.

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7

Hi all,

Thank you for the insight all those months ago. I wish I could say that this was the vaunted timeline post. But its not. Its a bit of an update.

Around mid-July, I called my security specialist to keep myself top of mind for all the reasons outlined in the initial post. He was very touch and go but told me to call him next week and that ‘someone should reach out’ by then. No one ever did.

I called him and he was equally surprised at the situation. He did a quick check on the phone with me and seemed at a loss for words. I asked him if I could help him with anything and he then asked me about two foreign nationals that I mentioned in my interview and SF86. Essentially the same questions that are on the document and the interview process.

I was confused but in retrospect, he definitely received the documents from the TLA and the foreign national issue is likely what caused the offer to be rescinded. I haven’t had contact with these people for over a year now as I knew they cost me my internship. I was very clear with my security specialist about this.

The next week, I call and he says ‘security has no further actions and you are under review.’

Since my last post, my security specialist and I have spoken about once a week at his invitation. Which I greatly appreciate.

However, for a month now I’ve been pending for a review. I know that it is totally out of my security specialist’s hands and he has given me the impression that there is a huge backlog for adjudication. At the same time, I just received an offer from ONI. After reading the comments about DIA’s talent pool, ONI seems very tempting to not have to wait through another bureaucratic process.

I am left with a few questions as this process continues:

  1. Is anyone hearing about or experiencing a backlog in adjudication?

  2. Can DIA clearances transfer across the DOD enterprise?

  3. How will a government shutdown impact this whole thing?

  4. Should I stop going to security and try to make inroads with HR to move this process forward?

As always, any advice is appreciated.

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8

Yes, DIA clearances can transfer to other DoD agencies… and so can unresolved issues. ONI will probably put you through the same process and even then it may have to wait until the DIA investigation/adjudication completes. But don’t let that stop you from pursuing the ONI offer.

By the way, I’m glad to hear you have made contact with somebody in security. HR always seems to insist that they have no insight into the security process.

9

As i understand it, you “can” request DIA to stop the adjudication and have ONI take over but it also depends on who the agency or org is who is doing the investigation like say DCSA for example vs DIA; If it’s the same one or if it’s in-house will make a difference. Either-way, the same issue will have to be resolved. I will say that DOD orgs like service branches are much more lenient than agencies like DIA, CIA, NSA which have become pains in the ass lately.

10

Thank you all for these replies, as of a few minutes ago I’m still pending according to my security specialist.

I’m wondering what the upcoming government shutdown means for my process. I have it on pretty good intel that the government will shutdown for two months or so unless a political miracle occurs.

Do adjudicators stop working? If they do, how likely is it that my file gets lost in the backlog? Is it time to write to my Senator to try to apply any sort of pressure?

I’m quickly losing faith in this process.

11

I believe that adjudicators are not deemed mission essential so they would be furloughed but i may be mistaken.

12

So the government shutdown never came to pass, at least not yet. But I’m still stuck in adjudication.

My security specialist, since my last post here, keeps saying I am in area review or adjudicative review. The terms he uses change and I have no idea what that means. I don’t know what this means for timeline.

But suffice to say, I’m well past the 30 business days that DCSA says is the average for adjudication.

I am increasingly considering getting Congress involved to put pressure on this process. I have folks on the inside inquiring about my case and still it doesn’t budge.

I get the impression that my case is languishing on someone’s desk. Is there literally anything to do? It really bites with this organization because I know I’ll have to wait even longer in the billet system so at this point I don’t even know if it’s worth it but at the same time I don’t want to take the clearance and leave. I’m not about that. But it seems like this organization has little respect for its applicants.

13

An update on this: I am still in adjudication. My POC, my only insight into the process, moved teams and no longer works my case.

I emailed the Security Customer Service office asking about my clearance and who my POC is and I got this email.

“You are still in adjudications. We appreciate your patience, as this is a lengthy process. As far as a POC goes, Security will reach out when more is required from you. If you have in questions in the mean time you can send an email to this email box.”

I interpreted this as them not wanting to give me my POC’s contact or I don’t have one and my case has no one assigned. If I have no one assigned, well, that’s not okay. I’ve gone through hell already.

I’ve heard that an adjudication backlog is forming.

Since posting here, I’ve resisted the urge to sic Congress on them. But at this point, what else is there to do? It seems like I’m in limbo. The obvious answer is wait it out but after all the screw-ups I don’t trust them to adjudicate me if left to their own devices.

14

Unfortunately, You have no recourse. Congress has no say in the adjudications process. I’ve been in the same boat.

You are lucky you even got a response really. I’ve never heard of having a POC for adjudications process. Keep in mind, if you keep “bothering” them to do their job, they can make it take even longer or just deny you. PPl can be jerks, especially in adjudications. My advice, just let it run it’s course and keep applying for other jobs.

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15

Thank you for your answer. This is frustrating because I know there is no incentive for them to get to my case or accountability if they leave me there for another year.

The recent statistics that have come out for clearance timelines are also worrying.

The clearance environment is trying to throw technology at a people problem.

I think a cursory read of my initial post here can explain to someone why I don’t have confidence in the people aspect of this process. Heck, flipping through the other threads can do that!

16

An update to this thread:

Yesterday I received a letter of advisement. The letter cited some college drug use. Which did not surprise me. But nevertheless, a favorable determination was made.

I’m anxiously awaiting the email from HR putting me in the hiring pool. My patience has dramatically thinned overtime and I am already looking to contractor jobs as fall backs in case the hiring pool takes awhile.

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17

Revisiting this reply, the talent pool is so much worse than I thought. You have one useful POC, seemingly for the entire talent pool for the largest career field…

The wait for something decent seems to be incredibly long and the inefficiency of the whole process makes me apprehensive to join the organization in the first place.

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