So I recently got my top secret clearance awarded after waiting for 6 years. The issue is I want to avoid moving for the next 1–2 years due to family issues and found a remote secret level job I’d love to work in the meantime. Would having the secret level job for a few years (under 5) retain my top secret level clearance? The main difference here is I haven’t been signed/briefed onto a project, so I don’t get that 2 year clearance hold that other people get.
I have talked to a security officer that said it would drop to secret because if you don’t use it you lose it. A second security officer said that the clearance follows the person and even if I get a clearance that’s only secret, my clearance will remain top secret for 5 years.
Does anyone know what would happen? Would signing onto a secret level project allow me to retain top secret clearance even if it’s my first project?
As I understand it, the clearance “follows the position”, your “eligibility follows you”. It’s up to the agency if they will keep it active. If you don’t need it, they probably won’t. But you will still be eligible to have it reinstated for up to like (2 years?). If you have a TS, look for a TS job. A recently granted Active TS cleared person is hard to come by, many companies will hire you on-the-spot.
I would get a regular TS job, but moving is out of the picture for a bit. I definitely got lots of offers, but they all required moving. So basically you’re saying it depends on how the government feels?
In my experience, people usually manage to hang on to their TS clearance (just the TS, not necessarily any SCI access) if the company has some kind of TS work [EDIT: even if you are not working on those projects]
Occasionally some customers will do a ‘scrub’ and direct that certain people not currently needing TS be “administratively” downgraded; you don’t “lose” the clearance, you can be reinstated quickly if the need arises.
In other words, what the second security officer said
