Interview DCSA Worried

Hello
Applied for clearance in February after getting a job. I got my interim in 2-3 weeks. Started my new job in April. Now in August got a call from a lady for an interview. I told her I moved from IL to NJ. She said she would send this request to someone in NJ for a in person interview. I asked her what they were looking for. She said interview about SF and would also like to see my passport and any other passport. I have an OCI card.

Bit worried now about the interview. In general have a clean background- no credit problems, tax problems, abuse problems, no criminal activity etc. I have made 3 trips to India for parent medical issues. I dont have any accounts but my spouse has account and rental apartment.

Not sure what flagged up to get an interview.

Anything and everything foreign related, really.
As long as you listed everything that you were required to, there shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m actually surprised they gave you an interim clearance…

Thanks. Interim clearance was not an issue at all. You are correct. I have made India trips as my and spouse parents visit US but reside in India. Mainly they have health issues as they age.
My wife has a investment property which I listed on the SF which she uses for rental purposes. However I am not tied with it nor have any bank accounts. Lets see. Hopefully wont be an issue.
Amar

OCI - Overseas Citizen of India?

Yes correct. Not a passport or dual citizenship.

Your interview was triggered by your foreign influences. Completely normal and standard protocol.

Not everyone knows what an Overseas Citizen of India card really is. The title is actually a misnomer since it is only issued to former citizens of India. As previously said, the issue is foreign influence, not foreign preference. I’m also surprised that you were granted an interim with immediate family and property in India. Most immigrants from India eventually get their final clearance, but many have to go through a couple extra steps in the clearance process.

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An update. Its been 210 days since the process started. The Form was submitted by me in February 15 2023. Then on August 15 2023 had the interview. The investigator said he needed to confirm with my spouse also. She had it on August 22 2023. Today 9/12/2023 I called up my security personnel. They said they had no information and just need to wait. I messaged my DCSA investigator to check my adjudication status. He said he had transferred my case for adjudication to the government and had a dealy due to some national outage. He did say he could not comment on approval as well as timeline.

Any idea how long I might have to wait in adjudication (I know there are several threads here but most are pre-pandemic). I am hoping it goes quickly and I get approved. Apart from foreign influence/contact/trips to india for parents who were terminally sick I do not have any other negatives such as financial, drugs, alcohol, criminal, credit etc.

Your investigator does not release your investigation to adjudication. Your investigator releases your investigation to review. Review has to approve the investigation before it goes to adjudication. If you were interviewed by a contract investigator (which most are) then your case will actually go through TWO review departments (one for the contract company and one with DCSA). Review is who releases your case to adjudication. Your investigator does not have access to your investigation after they write their report and transmit it to review. Your investigator cannot give you any updates and cannot tell you when your case is in adjudication or what the result of the investigation is. As investigators we are never told anything about the Subjects that we investigate.

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Thanks. Do you know what happens in the review? How long would each review take and then sent to adjudication? I just want to check since its been almost 9 months. I would not want to again get stuck in review. Though I do understand its out of my hands really. Having some knowledge could help. Thanks.
Amar

Review has nothing to do with you. It is checking the work of the investigators and ensuring that all required coverage has been obtained. If additional coverage is needed it will be sent back to the investigators for additional coverage and after that coverage is obtained it will then need to be checked by review. The contracting company review team checks the work of the contract investigators and then the DCSA review team checks the work of the contracting review team. Whenever something returns to the investigator for additional coverage the entire review process starts again. There is no way to know exactly how long this step will take as there are several variables. How well did each investigator do when obtaining coverage? How well did each investigator do when righting the reports? How many issues were involved. How well did the first review team do? How backlogged was each review team? Were there rebuttals made in the review process (another internal thing that has nothing to do with you). There are many different moving parts and people involved in each investigation that the Subjects of the investigation know nothing about.

I know I shared this story on the old Federal Soup, not sure if I told it here, but…

A guy I worked with had to work extended TDY for nearly a year. He told the investigator his home was in Springfield but he had been working in Shelbyville for the past year and living in hotels.

Some months later he got a call from a different investigator; she asked him, have you been living in hotels for 20 years??? He said no, I’ve been working for this company for 20 years but the past year I’ve been living in hotels. She said, yeah, I thought it was something like that, the guy who did your interview, I keep having to double-check his reports…

So that’s why they have a review process :slight_smile: