I tried to be as positive and hopeful that the polygraph will be okay if I just tell the god honest truth and do what I am told, but I was wrong. I failed the first one for drugs, crime and lying on the forms. I didn’t budge because I thought it was a joke. I had to take a 2nd one, in which i resolved all of the previous issues, but failed the whole entire CI portion. I’m thinking it’s a joke again and I will just recieve a email that I passed because none of those questions pertained to me. I go to my third one to resolve CI and get another failed result for another question I felt was easy. I give up. I just wanted to share my story for others that are going through this process. I am so confused and wasted so much time over nothing. I know i am not out until they say I am out, but they gave me three tries. No way I’m getting a fourth or a fifth. I hope any other applicant doesn’t experience this and gets through on the first try. This really sucks.
Sorry about your experience. Polygraphs are rough. It’s unpleasant to go through them and they definitely don’t make the experience any easier. Are you sure you failed? Did the explicitly say “you have failed”, or were they ambiguous?
He explicitly told me I failed that question. He kept implying I might need to come back for the fourth time to resolve that question. I kept saying they could check my phone to resolve that issue because it was about “secret foreign contacts” which I’ve never been out of the country. But nope. I dont even want the job at this point. They can keep it.
So let me get this straight. During your 1st polygraph, you were accused lying about drugs, crime, and lying on the form. Then on your 2nd polygraph, your polygrapher said your previous issues were “resolved,” but now you are lying about something else. Um…..your polygrapher is lying to you.
The whole purpose of the polygraph is to get you to admit to something that a background investigation would not be able to reveal. Based off yours and others experience, it sounds like you are moving forward in the process, so there is no need to give up just yet. Most agencies do not give more than 3 polygraphs, so there is a good chance that this will be your last one. If you do have additional polygraphs, do not change your answers. The government will use your discrepancies against you either in the adjudication phase or in your polygraph to accuse you of lying.
I just wasted the past 2 months and my hard-earned job offer is going away because of the CI polygraph. They’re not letting me back for a 3rd try and I’ve done nothing to jeopardize my original TS/SCI.
I hope to God the polygraph gets legislated out of use. Think of all the talent that encountered this roadblock and had to take themselves elsewhere. Not even the UK intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, GCHQ, DI) use polygraphs in their clearance, hiring, and continuous vetting processes.
Apparently GCHQ experimented with polygraphs in the 1980s as a trial run, but faced significant opposition from unions and concerns over effectiveness, false positives, difficulty testing those with disabilities, sociopaths being able to breeze through the polygraph, and so on. So none of the UK intelligence agencies do polygraphs… the USA should take a hint! 
Yeah. The US does everything a*s backwards. What else is new? FWIW, the examiner will tell you anything he can to confuse you including saying you failed. The examiner may ask you to come back to retest but not because you failed, rather because results were inconclusive. If he doesn’t invite you back, its probably because he got usable results he can send to the adjudicator. BUT!! The examiner has exactly “ZERO” control over your pass/fail. That’s all up to the adjudicator. You may still get a pass
Hopefully I get a pass. But if I get a denial letter then id be happy with that too. Too much stress and too much uncertainty.
I felt pressured to adjust my answers in order to achieve a “successful” polygraph outcome, which did not make sense to me because I had no additional information to provide. Maybe the polygrapher was lying and you’re right. Ill give an update once I get one. A denial letter doesn’t seem to bad either. This is too stressful.
OP, I assume you’ve already read SEAD-4, perhaps multiple times, but I would again encourage you to remind yourself that 1.c specifically states that technical collection from a polygraph cannot be the sole basis for a negative action.
A polygraph cannot be used against you to deny or revoke a security clearance. What can be used against you is what you tell the polygrapher. This why you should not change your story to just try to please your polygrapher. Your polygrapher is going to lie to you throughout the process, which is why anything they say should not be trusted.
You do not need to be stressed over this. My advice for your next polygraph, if you have another one, would be to just do what you’re told and do not admit to anything. A polygraph cannot read your mind nor does the polygrapher know every detail of your life. There are only two people in the room when you are being polygraphed and only one you knows what you have and have not done and that isn’t the polygrapher
Using the Russian search engine Yandex, search for “secret service polygraph.” It will be the number one hit. Google and Bing greylist the site. It will tell you everything you need to know about polygraphs, and yes the polygraphers lie as a matter of routine. Your experience is not unique.
I’ve heard that too but I think there’s lots of wiggle room. For example, if you are applying for a direct hire civilian position, you may not be denied a security clearance but you may be found “unsuitable” for employment. If you are a contractor, after a couple of tries the company may decide to lay you off. But technically speaking, what you say is correct.
Yeah, im waiting for the suitability denial so I can confirm alot of my thoughts about this process. If I get the job, cool. If I don’t, even better. Never setting foot near another polygraph ever again.
That is what suitability rejections are for. When the government suitability rejects an applicant, that means that the applicant has not done anything that would justify a clearance denial, but the agency does not want to hire them. The polygraph used to be a tool to do just that, but after multiple lawsuits, the government can no longer use polygraphs to take disciplinary actions against employees.
It is unusual to keep moving the goal post, claiming it’s other questions each time. Of course, Ive learned absolutely nothing polygrapher is to be trusted. It’s like they are timeshare salesmen. Razzledazzle right step…
I have know 3 people require 3-4 Pokys, they left it as unresolved but cleared anyway. Hang in there, it ain’t over till it’s over
It most absolutely can and has been used as the only adjudicating factor to deny or revoke a security clearance. People from the DIA such as John Dullahan and John Morter (2024) have had clearances revoked based solely on polygraph results, and a well documented case of a polygraph being the sole negative adjudicating factor can be found at: secretservicepolygraph.com