I forgot to list a divorce from 1996 in the SF86

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I had my interview yesterday. As the investigator was asking his questions, he mentioned my current marriage. I noticed that he did not ask about my 1996 divorce. I immediately brought it up, I had mentioned it all of my previous BIs TS and secrets clearances, so I wasn’t hiding it. The investigator (he was a piece of work) tried to play gotcha with me, stating they had found it on their databases. I pointed out to him that I mentioned it before he “got me” and that I had included it in previous investigations. I merely made a mistake.

Other than some minor clerical admin errors, dates were off of school degrees, a wrong address, is this of any concern?

Now, I will state that was one of the most unprofessional human beings I have ever met. From scheduling and canceling the interview 6 times (for the beach, car wreck, the flu") to his personal conduct inside my office space.

It was amazing.

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2

Naaa. You shouldn’t worry about it. You highlighted the facts before and even during the interview. As far as the BI, some are prior military (they will often be very prompt and neat) and many are folks who get the job off the street as John or Jane Doe. Each investigator is different. As long as they file their reports - that is the big thing that is of importance to us as the fiduciaries. If a BI shows up in a clown uniform to conduct my interview, I’ll just answer the questions to my fullest and hope that ‘bozo’ files his reports through the proper channels :wink:

3

I was embarrassed that I had omitted the event. The divorce had been adjudicated with prior DOD and DOJ investigations. I guess I am still reeling from his unprofessional conduct before, during and after the interview.

4

This reminds me of an old story an investigator shared with me. I asked him, does anyone you interview as a reference ever give up any good info? He said, oh yeah, happens all the time.

He said he was doing an interview regarding an aerospace engineer in the LA area. He asked the reference, do you know if so-and-so has any financial problems? And the reference said, no, he does OK for a guy with two ex-wives.

The investigator thought to himself… what? What two ex-wives? Apparently he never listed them.

He said that cleared up why a well-paid engineer was living in a room over a garage.

:zany_face:

5

What was his conduct in your office space? You hooked me.

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He arrived about 15 minutes late—not surprising, given his track record of canceled appointments. He got lost in the parking lot and ended up calling me to come find him. I met him at the employee-only entrance, then escorted him around to the visitors’ entrance to get him cleared through security.

He was wearing what looked like a gray athleisure-style sweatpants/slacks combo. I don’t recall if he had on a collared shirt, but it didn’t strike me as professional. Most investigators I’ve dealt with have dressed appropriately for the setting.

He mentioned this was his first time at our facility, which makes sense—it’s an unmarked off-site location and not easy to find. He complained about us not being located on the main military installation, saying we “should be.” That was his opinion, and not something I felt needed a response.

Normally, I would’ve reserved a conference room for the interview. In fact, I had booked one through our executive assistant for five of the six previous appointments. Each time he canceled, I would follow up with her to release the room. After so many cancellations, she told me he was “ghosting” me and refused to reserve any more space.

So for this last appointment, I didn’t book anything in advance. I planned to find an empty room on the second floor when he finally arrived. That floor houses our management and executive offices. The elevators open right in front of those suites. I would’ve taken the stairs, but he was already laboring just from the walk in.

As we exited the elevator and turned left—away from the senior leaders’ suite—he lagged behind. As we walked down the hall and turned another corner, I realized he’d fallen further behind. I looked over my shoulder, and that’s when I saw it.

He had stopped, turned around, walked into an occupied office without knocking, interrupted an ongoing meeting, grabbed a handful of candy off a desk, and walked out.

That office belonged to one of our more no-nonsense functional leads, and the look on her face was pure shock. He didn’t say “excuse me,” didn’t ask permission, and didn’t say “thank you.”

Just walked in, helped himself, and walked out like it was nothing. Since the lady is our organization’s security officer, I will probably receive some sort of feedback relative to visitor access and control

7

Yikes, sounds like a hot mess for sure. The multiple cancellations are way beyond the pale.

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