Regarding the SF-86. If I have chatted on Alibaba with Chinese business people in regards to pricing on products and bids, etc do I have to figure out how to retrace these steps? Some of the conversations were back-and-forths over years of doing business.
Please tell me I don’t need to list this stuff?
Thanks
Rule of thumb I was given. Would you invite them to your wedding? If so you’ve known enough about them and they about you AND you have a lot of their contact info to fill out the form with. Otherwise, no unless the specific agency wants it.
The question states “close and continuing contacts”. I was always told it’s up to the Subject to determine if they are close and continuing(within reason)
Yeah it’s pretty arbitrary at the end of the day. Some agencies or programs put even more stringent reporting requirements. In this case I don’t think alibaba counts but anybody can chime in and disagree
except for two flags: Chinese businessmen and over years of doing business. Report the contacts.
I don’t know if he means true business (which I agree is reportable) or if like on eBay where you message a seller for more info on a pair of shoes you want and they also happen to have pants you want a year later.
the “chatted with” statement would trigger additional information if the Subject or any Source mentioned the relationship.
Simply ordering something is one situation, interacting with someone to have your product built is another.
Thanks for all the comments. To be more specific: Was bidding on different parts with one Chinese rep and she would send new product updates. Then different rep same company. So been about 8-9 years with that company but ordered under $1k of products over that span. I did have a business license at that time and currently have an LLC. Other than that just random bidding on simple parts under $20-100 every now and then, none of those were ongoing - just random price quotes. Small talk was regarding the products and one conversation about the new tariffs and trade war.