I recently received my secret and now my employer wants to bump me to a TS.
If I have a Secret, will getting a TS be more “easier” and/or quicker?
Maybe, but probably not. The Tier 5 is a huge jump in the investigation process. Some of the fieldwork from the Tier 3 (secret) will not be repeated if the coverage was within a certain time period, Then there is the rest …
Good news is that if you were thorough and honest the first time, the process has a good chance of going smoothly once your case is assigned to an investigator.
It is going to be a lot easier on you, since you already filled in the paperwork.
You’ll just have to update some information here and there.
I you had a subject interview for your secret, you already explained all the issues you had.
As far as the process goes, like backgdinvestigator said, the process will go a lot smoother since most issues are already explained/documented and mitigated.
It is also unlikely that the investigator/QA/adjudicator will do the back and forth and waste time.
Is it going to save some time overall? Probably not a whole lot…
You have the advantage of having successfully filled out a SF-86 and been given feedback on any deficient areas. The form is the same, so you should only have some minor updating to do and fix anything that was identified as an error during your last investigation.
On my end, it took me 9 months to get an S during 2018-2019, but only ~3 months to get a TS this year. My S was slowed down since the backlog was very high back then and I made two errors on my form. My TS flew through since (presumably) the backlog is low right now and I had a chance to fix those errors.
2 Likes