I’m approaching my 5 year re-investigation for an MBI Public Trust as a contractor for a civilian federal agency. In the last 5 years, I was able to take a lot of time off in-between projects and traveled a lot (30+ countries), including a 6-month period of traveling non-stop. It was all regular tourist travel, and I never visited any “trouble” countries, e.g. those on the gov’t travel ban list and such.
Based on what I’ve seen on this forum, extensive foreign travel is not necessarily a concern, isn’t it? But I do have related questions:
I’m not sure I can remember every single trip and country, and I’m worried I may inadvertently miss one or two on the form. Do they pull the actual US customs departure/arrival records during the investigation to verify all my trips?
Are there any circumstances where the information I provide on the MBI form is shared with someone in my company? I wouldn’t be thrilled if my bosses saw the list of all my travels. I don’t like to advertise my travel habits to my co-workers to avoid any negative feelings or unnecessary internal publicity (e.g. not everyone can afford that type of lifestyle and such)
Thanks.
As to the first question, you need to list everything. Check your passport. Check credit card transactions for locations, emails for flight data etc. I am not sure if they are able to track your movements outside of the US but they will know when you left and returned.
I would consult with someone with more authority, but if you are not aware of specific dates you might be able to state “On or around August 2018 I traveled to Switzerland, Austria and Poland” At the very least that is showing you are not trying to hide those travels.
As for question 2… Personal information should not be shared with your immediate supervisors or coworkers. But it doesn’t really matter because you can’t hide your travels from your investigation or that’ll create far worse. Honestly I’m not sure why you are concerned about it. You choose to spend your money on travel, and probably budget in a way to support that. You traveling is no different than your boss’s hot rod sitting in the garage collecting dust, at least financially.
As an aside, if I was one of your coworkers I’d be fascinated by your travels. I’d want to hear all about them. I put in a big pool in my backyard instead of traveling a lot. But we have young kids so traveling is not as easy as I would like it to be.
I will do my best, but I still might get some dates wrong. I no longer have some credits cards I used, and many passport stamps are illegible or missing. Just curious, are you saying they actually check the arrival/departure records? I didn’t realize they go so deep for a Public Trust investigation.
I hear you, but different working circles have different personal dynamics, and yes, it’s about fitting in. In a particular environment I’m in, I believe it’s in my best long-term interest to keep certain distance and not to open up my entire personal life to others. I surely hope it will not be shared with my immediate managers. And I would prefer that it’s not shared with my company at all. Could it be shared with my company security office? They are the ones who coordinate all security matters (tracking due dates for training, re-investigations etc.) between the employees and our government clients.
I don’t know how deep they go on Public Trust. Someone else may be better suited to answer that. I also don’t know how or to what detail they are able to find your arrival departures from the united states. But I believe they are able to get that info and that you should be as thorough as possible.