I was fired from my job in June 2016 for performance issues. At the time, I had a secret clearance which was renewed in 2015 . I was then hired in May of this year (2017). Now I need a secret clearance again, but they want me to complete and submit an eQIP. I thought my clearance that was active last year should still be good and could be reinstated immediately. That’s been my experience during my 25+ years working in the defense industry. My understanding is that my clearance that I had, that was active in June last year should be good for 2 years from the date it was administratively downgraded. Has something changed since then?
Lot of things could be going on here. The new agency/sponsor/customer may want to see an updated eQIP before they grant you access. They may not do reciprocity on your existing clearance and you have to do the whole thing. Or the HR/Security people at the new job may not know what they’re doing.
I would think the most you should have to do is an SF-86C to indicate if anything has changed since your last update in 2015. But they didn’t ask for my opinion 
It is normal for agencies to ask for updated information from the last time you held the clearance to determine if if anything adverse transpired since that time when you had no self reporting requirement. Getting fired for performance is not an issue looked at, but trying to hide it or not disclosing as required is an issue.
Thank you both for your replies.
Some additional background. After getting fired from the previous employer where I last had a secret clearance (June 2016), I interviewed with a contract agency for a NAVSEA job and they gave me a tentative start date around October 2016. They made me an offer and I accepted; however since the job didn’t start for over a month, I also interviewed and accepted a job with a commercial defense contractor and that’s where I’m working now. After accepting my present job, I rescinded my acceptance of the NAVSEA contract job since it was uncertain when I would start, if ever. Then, about a week later I got a call from an OPM investigator wanting to set up an interview. As it turns out, he was investigating me for the NAVSEA contract job that I had previously turned down. I told him so and the investigation was subsequently closed. I find it odd that I never completed and security clearance paperwork relative to the NAVSEA contract position and an OPM investigator calls me right out of the blue.
So yesterday I received an email from HR for the company where I work now stating the following: “Your last investigation that began in 2016 was discontinued in January and not completed…” [Here they are referring to the investigation relative to the job I turned down]. “Since this occurred 6 months ago, the government will not reopen that investigation. Therefore, you are required to fill out an eQIP in order to have a current investigation. The last completed investigation was in 2005 which is out of scope for the Secret clearance level.”
The last sentence in the quote above is simply not correct. In August 2015 my clearance came up (10 years from 2005) for Periodic Reinvestigation (PR). I completed, signed and submitted an eQIP and as far as I know, my clearance was renewed and I did classified work up until my termination in June 2016. I wrote HR back and told them this.
So I guess my question is, how did my clearance fall off the radar? Is HR simply confused by the 2016 investigation that was discontinued and they didn’t look back further?
It sounds like this is what happened:
- clearance PR was due and you submitted the e-QIP for it in Aug 2015
- you were fired in June 2016 while investigation was still in progress
- in Oct 2016 you interviewed for NAVSEA and they saw you already had investigation in progress so they took ownership of it for the job they offered you, which was at the tail end of the investigation which is why the OPM investigator called you
- since you told NAVSEA that you no longer wanted the job they contacted OPM and discontinued the investigation before it was fully completed.
- your current employer also saw an investigation in progress which is why they didn’t ask you to fill out a new application.
- because the investigation was discontinued, you now have to start the PR process from scratch because you don’t have a completed/closed investigation within the past 10 years.
Sounds totally reasonable. Thank you!