I just received notice that Effective June 18, 2018, federal guidelines removed the requirement for a subject/personal interview. The change was due to a revision to the FIS and Tier2 investigative requests. However agencies are now required to obtain responses to a Supplemental Questionnaire form in lieu of the interview.
Guess what the supplemental questionnaire form has most of the same questions that are on the SF86.
The only time a personal interview will be conducted is if there is an event that occurs during the investigation that necessitates a triggered interview.
WTF?
Saves money and lightens the load on investigators.
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The investigators are overburdened with cases. Makes sense to have them focus on higher-risk files.
yes but the supplemental form asks questions that were on the sf86. So the interview is out but the investigation covers much more.
Something tells me that the supplemental questions will not simply be a repeat of the SF86. More likely is that the form is BASED on the SF86 and allows the investigator to indicate which questions require further clarifications/explanation.
I have the form. Yes its based on the sf86. The questions are much more invasive now. Questions like have you ever been written up in the last 7 years. Have you used any drugs in the last seven years. Mental health questions, domestic violence questions over your entire lifetime, and many many more.
Its going to be a lot harder to get a MRPT now and I think its intentional.
The supplemental questions for public trust have been required for a few years. Now you just answer them, on your own, instead of having an investigator walk you through the questions during a Subject interview.
Your the expert so I take your word for it, however, these are questions that never were on a SF85p. I don’t think that the investigator can ask you questions that were not on the form. Anyhow this form just became requirement on 6/18/18 according to my agency.
NRC, did you get the “new” SF-85p? I believe there is a new version of the form going around that is separate from the supplemental forms.
Yes I do have it, one of the questions is, " in the last 7 years have you been 120 day or more past due on any debts. The old form just asks if you are currently 180 days past due on any accounts. So folks that work really hard to get negative reporting off their credit reports are now SOL because even if your report is perfect now, if you had issues before, they will want you to report it. Because it typically takes 7 years for negative accounts to age off the feds want to be able to know about items that are not even on the report anymore.
Complete , well you know what.
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Wait . . . It takes seven years for lates to fall off of your report and they are asking you if you had any lates in the last seven years? They are not asking for anything that they can’t get. They are asking you to self report. But, anything that has been resolve is, sort of, self-mitigated because it shows that you dealt with the issue.
Hi Ed,
I believe a big portion of the intent behind these questions is to see if the applicant is honest. The BI is part-honesty test, part evaluation of a candidate’s behavior and circumstances.
Prior to the change, anyone who completed a SF-85P, was asked 30 supplemental questions during the subject interview. As an investigator, it was annoying because you didn’t know if you were going to get a “yes” to a question would would make the interview much longer. Going forward, the applicants will get the supplemental questions in advance and will submit responses with the SF-85P. Interviews will only be conducted if there is unfavorable information reported or something negative comes back on any of the checks. Eventually, the SF-85P is supposed to be updated in eqip so that all the new questions are incorporated into the form.
yes any negative reporting even one 30 day later stays on for 7 years I just received notice that my re investigation will commence in 30days.
I will post regular updates to the process and associated time frames.
oh that makes sense now. Thanks
Based on a redacted version of the 2012 FIS, Enhanced Subject Interviews (ESI) for Tier 2 and Tier 2R investigations have been optional since the December 2012 FIS was approved. However, until this year OPM only offered T2S (Tier 2 with Subject Interview) and T2RS (Tier 2 reinvestigation with Subject Interview). OPM did not add a Tier 2 or Tier 2R (without Subject Interview) to their schedule of investigation billing rates until they issued their billing rates for FY2019. It sounds to me that your agency is choosing to use the standard Tier 2 investigation (without Subject Interview) IAW the 2012 FIS. If there’s a revision to the 2012 FIS, please point to an authoritative source for this. I’d also appreciate a link to the new supplemental form. Is the form approved by OMB?
nrc2112: Thank you very much.
It really depends on the scope of the case and the specific particulars. This can be difficult to monitor.
WTF? I just had a personal interview on June 20th