Holding TS/SCI clearance

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I am looking to move to a new job. I currently have TS/SCI. One company has told me they would hold my TS (by putting it on another contract or something), can they ethically and legally do that?

Also about SCI. I have been hearing different things from different people, for years. It never fails to amaze me that I have come across Security officers that don’t know as much about clearances as I do. So I take everything with a grain of salt. In addition to the first question, my second on is this.

From what I was told, you don’t take SCI with you when you leave a position. The SCI access (unlike the secret or TS) is specific to that job and position. You get “read on” when you get the clearance and “debriefed or read off”, when you leave the position. For jobs that advertise must have TS/SCI, how can they ask for that, when you technically don’t have the SCI access if you leave the position? You would have to be re-investigated for that “new” SCI access, correct? I know there is a two year inactivity grace period with all clearances (including SCI), but I don’t change jobs very often anymore (two years would be “often”, for me).

A job that I am interviewing for will hold my TS clearance, but not the SCI. Should I accept that? How could they “hold it” in the first place? The SCI. That’s the part I don’t understand.

Also, all the returning vets get priority (and rightly so) for these jobs. Is it really worth it to hold out to find a job with TS/SCI, just to keep it? Or would another company I apply for (theoretically after two years) put me in for one, since I have passed one in the past??? With all the vets in the market place now (with high clearances and polys), is having “SCI” even an advantage, anymore?

2

Agencies cannot “hold” a clearance when you leave their employment. As with SCI access, you are supposed to sign the debrief portion of the SF-312 before you leave which effectively means you no longer hold an active clearance. When the new company or agency picks you up they have you sign a new 312 and grant you access based on the still in scope investigation that you had done with the old agency. ODNI has pushed all government agencies to lower the number of clearances to what is actually needed, not giving someone a clearance because they “might” need it. If agencies see that you were cleared before and no new issues have arisen since it is fairly easy to reinstate.

3

What form does the company fill out to use the TS clearance?

4

A company does not grant anyone a clearance, they have an individual fill out the SF-86 for processing through DSS who makes the clearance determination based upon a completed investigation and/or review of the 86 if an in-scope investigation was previously done.