Hello, I just received my TS clearance last week, but I have a question. I am Iranian American (came to the U.S. when I was 12) and was naturalized at age 20. I am single right now. However, if I were to date someone with a similar background as mine (let’s say they came to the U.S. around ages 12-16, and became a naturalized citizen), what impact if any would this development have on my future TS and/or TS SCI clearance prospects? Do they review the significant other’s background as extensively as my own for TS/TS SCI purposes? My TS clearance process was … long and difficult, but thankfully my parents were both naturalized U.S. citizens and my personal history was fairly simple. However, I’ve been thinking about this issue for a while now, I would welcome anyone with similar experiences/thoughts on how best to handle this risk.
“If” you date someone? If they are non-citizens, yes it will be an issue. If their families are not citizens, yes it will be an issue. If you begin to have “close and continuing” contact with foreign nationals, yes you will have a problem.
It’s really hard to deal with “if’s” in these situation.
If she is a naturalized citizen it becomes easier. But remaining in touch with former country connections, family, bonds of affection, if they own foreign property or receive money from a foreign retirement or have foreign bank accounts…that is a “something.” that requires a lot of vetting. You would need report all known foreign connections and social media is now a searchable item. Continuous evaluation is also rolling out so you can expect monitoring.
I used to work at a defense contractor. We hired a guy from the commercial sector who had a similar background. Turned out his mother still lived in Tehran! Anyway he got a Secret clearance, even with that. They kept in contact by phone but he had never been back since the glorious enqelab-e Islami.
This was for Secret, not TS. On the other hand, we had a woman whose father’s family came from Iran and she had a Secret but they never put her in for the TS, same with a guy whose family was from Iran but he was born in France or someplace and came here when he was still a baby. So you are ahead of the game getting a TS!