I hope everyone is doing well. I have TS/SCI + FSP eligibility granted from NSA last year, although I never EOD’d. I just signed an offer with a contractor for the CIA, and I was told that it may take 2 months for the clearance crossover. Does this sound right? I was hoping that it would be sooner than that. However, I heard some people talk about crossovers taking 6 months or longer. If that is the case, I would begin to worry about my eligibility expiring sometime in November. I’m just curious if anyone here experienced a similar crossover and what timeline I should expect for that process to finish. Thank you all
When it comes to CIA, all bets are off.
If this is for a position not on site with no access to the CIA network, it could go quickly. If it is for an on-site position with “staff like access” then it could take much longer, maybe more than six months.
At least you’re in the game!
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Thanks for the response. I didn’t think of that difference. This position is not on site. In that case, by quickly, do you mean a couple of weeks, months, or less than 6 months? I understand it’s only an estimate anyway. I’m mainly curious because I will have to relocate for this job, and I need to time my move well
Could be a couple weeks but hard to predict for sure. Makes it tough having to plan a move with this kind of uncertainty.
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So…this I say with certainty…no 3 letter agency believes any other 3 letter agency does clearances properly. Oddly, if you came in with a DoD clearance for a fully cleared position with staff like access…I routinely crossed people over in 72 hours. Those from other agencies? Took quite a while. Having attended their 3 day Industrial Security conference the chief of their clearance division briefed some really big boo boo stories.
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I got a job with a contractor that had contracts with CIA and NSA, but we were not on-site. At the time I was cleared/active through the reserves. CIA picked me up fairly quickly (weeks not months), NSA said no you need to have a whole new investigation/poly/etc. At that company it was a lot easier to deal with CIA than NSA.
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They are downright comical in regard to their disdain for each other
Do any of you know any possible issues that can happen with a crossover from the NSA given that I never indoc’d and assuming that the “receiving” agency is fully willing to approve the crossover? I am worried that the clearance or FSP is not “real” until I indoc with NSA, even if it shows up on scattered castles normally. I heard of someone in a similar situation saying their FSP is unadjudicated until they EOD.
And if that unadjudicated FSP thing is real, how would it change if the receiving agency is the NSA itself? In that case, I’m crossing over from civilian to contractor of same agency
Did the contractor verify you clearance? Most of the time if you never EOD, then you never had a clearance. I know there is some “cleared candidates list” thing ppl are talking about now but i wouldn’t expect CIA to bite on that if you got it from another agency.
All the contractors were able to verify that I had an adjudicated TS/SCI and FSP. I’m just questioning if that is good enough for a crossover from the NSA side (whether the receiving agency approves of it or not). Also, I might have another option to be on a contract with NRO. Not sure how the timeline looks for NSA → NRO
No, it’s not. CIA can be dicks. Plus, you never worked for them or any IC agency i’m suspecting so it may be much harder at this point in time. NRO clearances are handled by CIA so you are in same boat.
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I did exactly what you are describing. NSA cleared candidate list to CIA contractor as a first time clearance holder. It took about 2 months for it to transfer. My indoc was scheduled 2 weeks out.
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That is very reassuring. Thank you
That may have been true at one time but not anymore. I think there are still some CIA employees at NRO but most of their civilians are DoD employees now.
My experience is a bit dated but as of a few years back, NRO was probably the easiest IC agency to work with. Not that they don’t have their moments but crossovers generally went quickly with them as compared to other agencies.
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We had one lady fully cleared with the Va agency working for years, and we needed her to cross over to the md agency, and she got suitability denied… Ridiculous.
Usually a cross over just verifies you are in scope and no negative info. If you are getting long in the tooth, at times we were asked for a fresh sf86. I called this the “No-No-No” check. Looking at the pertinent questions. At timeswe were asked for 2 SF86s as one division completed the crossover, the other initiated a fresh investigation.
I just left an NRO not too long ago contract and it was CIA handling their clearance, atleast on that one.
I accepted a junior-level contractor position and my crossover paperwork has been submitted, but I am super nervous of the position being cut. Anyone in a similar boat, or successfully landed at their job without having their contractor offer rescinded?