I recently received an approval of my public trust background investigation for a position with ICE. In the interim, I received a job offer from the Justice Department. I was originally concerned about an arrest record 17 years ago regarding my background investigation for Homeland Security. Apparently, that was not a problem since I got the job offer. Because the job offer with the Justice Department is a better position, I would prefer to accept that job. However, do you think that the arrest record will be a problem with the Justice Department even though it was not a problem with Homeland Security? Do they abide by the same protocol?
I’m in a similar position where I was granted a secret clearance at USCIS despite some potential problems from years ago, but was now accepted for a job at DoJ with a tentative offer. Anything from as long as 17 years ago shouldn’t come up on an SF-86, because they only go back 7 years of disclosure. They do check your arrest record from places you’ve lived, but with something so long ago I doubt it would be a problem.
However, they do not abide by the same protocol. I asked an admin officer at the DoJ if their clearances reciprocated with DHS and he said they do not. Even if they did, at some point they would do their own investigation, especially if you need to attain a higher level clearance, and they will make their own judgements regardless of what the determination was by a different agency. For example, I’ve seen the gov’t (OPM?) explain that the DEA would likely be far more concerned with a drug charge than the Department of Energy.