Joining the Reserves while waiting for clearance

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hello,

My first post here. I was wondering would it be wise to try to join the Army reserves while I am waiting for my Top Security clearance to be processed. It has been 2 years since I applied for this job and my background investigation has been started end of 2016 and I guess it should have been completed by now. I should be in adjudication process now or will be soon.
Lets say I joined the Reserves and my clearance gets cleared afterwards and they want me to start working, how would that affect my obligations in the Reserves? Would I be able to get out easily based on getting this TS job? With the TS job I would need to travel outside the US a lot so I am not sure if I would be able to continue with my possible obligations in the Reserves.
Or maybe I should not join at all and just wait to see how it goes with the clearance?

Thank you!

2

This sounds like a question for the reserves . . .

3

The answer to your question is embedded in federal law - The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

4

While in the Reserves you can’t just quit because you got a better job. You have to sign a minimum year enlistment that you have to fulfill before you can leave. You are obligated to fulfill that timeline whether you want to or not. The minimum enlistment is usually 3 or 4 years. With that being said, the job you are waiting on could allow you to fulfill your one weekend a month in the reserves, becuase as Dave019 stated, there are laws saying that employers have to allow service agreements to the Military Reserves. The only thing is that that employer probably asked in your initial application if you were a member of the military, and they may not wish to hire you after finding that out.

  • Bottom line, I would not enlist in the reserves unless you are prepared to fulfill your enlistment agreement, and the company sponsoring your clearance is ok with it.
5

Thank you guys! I will check into this and read the USERRA act.

6

Yeah, that’s illegal.

7

Well maybe i didn’t state it right but i’m pretty sure private contractors overseas are not being sent home once a month to fulfill Reserve obligations.

1 Like
8

Thank you guys.
I knew it would probably not be a good thing to join the reserves or the military at this point. Hopefully my clearance comes through soon. It has been long 2+ years since I applied for the job and went through all the checks and investigations.

9

Put your civilian ambitions first. The military is a huge commitment. With that being said, if you have any reservations about joining then you probably shouldn’t. Best of luck.