Received "Continue Processing" Letter from Agency

Wow, you’ve been in the process a while. Makes me feel less bad. I’ve seen my recruiters and some others a few emails asking what’s taking so long, but nothing. I heard people who are inside and not apart of HR, but might have made initial contact with the applicant, were told not to communicate with the applicants anymore. Maybe a process to weed out nepotism. I haven’t spoken with my inside contacts since as early as 2016.

Yea I’m just letting it run it’s course. It takes as long as it takes, if they need more info I send it back ASAP but other than that not much you me or anyone can do. I’m used to the hurry up and wait procedures and I’m for certain it will all be worth it. I think part of the long wait times is they don’t what flip floppers. They are looking for dedication and passion, and nothing says that like patience.

I’ve been in adjudication for 14 months. Apparently it’s not “average” but completely normal. The times they list online and tell their HR people are total BS (9-12 months from returned SF-86…more like 24+ months).

Not surprised though. Each of us has circumstances which might have put us into the “troublesome” pile, where things take a little bit longer. I fully expect to be in adjudication for at least another 9 months.

In my opinion, it is good news they are asking you to explain the debt. They could go the denial route and not ask for an explanation, and just say you are a security risk. So these correspondences are good news because they are still giving you a chance. Good luck to you, I hope it gets resolved soon. Clearance granted in your future!

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I’m expecting to have serious doubts once it makes it to the 3 year mark since I got my COE, in March of 2016. As for now, I’ll continue to wait. My process is pushing a total of 1000 days since I got the COE though. Are your guys’ processes longer?

900 and something odd days for me. I’ve seen others from what I expect is the same place as me averaging the same days, so I knew I wasn’t alone. I was contacted like 2 days after I applied, I thought man this outta go quick haha that was almost three years ago

Thanks, you’re right. Although, I really didn’t have to submit explanations for much.

You haven’t indicated when you entered adjudication. Your PO should be able to tell you. In any case, sounds like the summer in Russia really slowed things down. Up until that point, your timeline is long but not unusual (6 months between application and COE; 9 months between COE and poly).

My timeline is as follows:

  • June 2016 application
  • September 2016 CJO and returned SF-86
  • January 2017 SF-86 corrections; initial security review
  • April Poly/psych/medical
  • June investigation begins
  • August interview with BI and entered into adjudication a few weeks later
  • late October notified of assignment to an office

Get calls every few months, but otherwise crickets since then. They asked about drugs, but I gave them what I think was a satisfactory answer (used experimentally and socially in college; never purchased or sold; I’m out of that environment and have moved on with my life).

The biggest thing gnawing at me is not so much the time - which is annoying - but whether or not I’ve been placed along with other “undesirables” in some ever-growing pile that they’ll only get around to in like 2-3 more years. The process is maddening, and honesty only seems to do you a disfavor.

I had my SI interview 7 months after submitting sf86, and that was on the short side of 2 months ago, all the other stuff I had was July for TS/SCI.

I feel like I am moving quickly, but i know that’s anecdotal.

Sorry for randomly butting in, but how far ahead were you notified for scheduling the polygraph/psych/medical? Was it a month ahead of time?

I sure hope you’re right.

9-12 months lol. I remember they told me that. It’s been more than double.

Yeah, I had a lot of foreign national forms. Those things are two pages, too. Double-sided, they were able to barely fit into a very large envelope. I know lots of foreign nationals, including some folks in the Russian government who are young like me. Not close and continuing, but fb friends. I put every single person I knew for sure that was a foreign national, from social media to my phone contacts, on those forums and completed them as thoroughly as possible. I think it’s not a bad thing to know foreign nationals, so long as you disclose them. I had a recruiter once tell me that those contacts can be leveraged if it’s discovered that they can supply information. FNC’s get more tricky when you were born in another country/the foreign nationals are in your family, or both. Gov starts to question your allegiance. Foreign influence/foreign preference, ie adjudicative standards.

What is an SI interview?

About 3 weeks actually from the call to the date, and I took the 1st slot available.

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I asked if I was in adjudication and whether or not it had started and I got this response in late August.

“The last step in this process is with Security. Some have bravely used the term ‘adjudication’ but that term has not been approved for use. If you’d like to use adjudication as the last step with Security, we’ll say you’re in adjudication or actively processing.”

So I don’t know when adjudication started, and I never met w/ a background investigator in person or spoke to one on the phone. Does that mean they trust me and my contacts enough and didn’t find anything “bad” Not like there’s anything they would find that I didn’t tell them?

How do you get assigned to an office before getting a clearance?

DIA or other DOD affiliates do that

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They scheduled it about 3 months later. This was about a week or so after I submitted corrections to SF-86 via e-mail (mostly addresses I left out stupidly, thinking it was redundant to have to list addresses multiple times (e.g. moving back and forth between college and home while off).

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As part of the bureaucratic wrangling, different offices compete over candidates who could fit into multiple areas. I have a few areas of expertise (feels weird to say that; wouldn’t really consider myself an expert by any means but so it goes), so I assume that process took them 12 months or so to figure out where I would be assigned. It seems to be separate entirely from the security process, though I guess it did give me some confidence considering this was after an initial contact from Security clarifying some BI stuff.

My position title is generalist, so I could fit into different areas rather than specialists.