I was offered a staff position with DHS pending clearance and am currently in an active chapter 13 with my wife. We have a confirmed plan and made 14 payments. We filed due to excessive credit card debt that was run up over a 5 year period due to loss of income from job furloughs, 3 month disability from an accident my wife suffered, and a 2nd mortgage that went more than 100% underwater. The furloughs stopped, my wife was back at work, but the credit card debt at high interest and 84,000 underwater heloc mortgage remained. We called all creditors but they refused to work with us so we consulted an attorney. We never missed a payment on anything until our attorney advised we stop paying all unsecured debt including the heloc as it would be paid through the bankruptcy. In 2013 we went delinquent on all unsecured debt for 6 months pending the filing upon advice of counsel and filed at the new year 2014. We filed, made payments as directed, and after further documentation were confirmed 5 months ago. How would DHS treat this situation for a top secret clearance? We have never had any credit problems before this and are both in our 40s. I work in a position of public trust and have a perfect record in all other aspects of life. We ran up 60k in credit card debt over 5 years and the 84k heloc was purchase money. The court will discharge all in just over 3.5 years after we complete the chapter 13 payment plan. All student loans, first mortgage, and taxes have been paid on time our entire lives and through the process of resolving the unsecured debt.
Thanks for any insight.
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Life happens and sometimes it gets away from us. It sounds like you have taken all of the right steps and if you continue on with the bankruptcy requirements then the financial issues can be mitigated, but the clearance might be granted under conditions that you provide proof of payments towards the resolution of the debt.