I’m about to fill out my SF-86 to renew my clearance but I’m concerned that my request will be denied due to a period of hardships that I went through after I got out of the military and before I obtained employment at my current job that required a clearance. I successfully completed my military enlistment in 2010 at age 22 (honorable discharge) but shortly after I got out, I ran into some financial hardships while trying to find stable employment and go to school. I’ve also been pulled over on three separate occasions (between August 2010- Oct 2011) for driving on a suspended license without knowledge for issues such as having expired tags and lapse of insurance. I’ve never been arrested or convicted of anything, I’ve only had to pay the licensee reinstatement fees and obtain SR-22 insurance, but I’ve satisfied the conditions of the SR-22 back in April 2013. Those are the only moving violations that I have but I have no points on my license. No moving violations since 2011 and I’ve maintained insurance. I’ve also ran into financial issues, such as closed accounts, collections, lowered credit, delinquencies, late payments on an auto loan that didn’t exceed 120 days, and an eviction (that was all in 2011). My company hired me at the end of 2011, and this job requires a secret clearance, so I’m sure they’ve check my clearance, and I was able to obtain employment, despite my financial and legal issues, but I was pretty much homeless until I deployed in early 2012. I paid off all of the debts and delinquent accounts from 2012 to 2014. Paid off the car loan 3 years early in 2012 when I received my bonus and I paid of the eviction in 2013 when I got my second bonus. I completed my contract in 2013, came home to America, went to school and worked simultaneously, graduated in 2014, and now I’m getting ready to deploy again but I have to renew my clearance because it’s set to expire in May. What are my chances of being able to get my clearance renewed?
Also, I forgot to mention that I’ve improved my credit from poor to average within the past three years it’ll be considered good again within the next year. I have student loans but I’m avoiding paying the debt in full because I want to continue to rebuild my credit by making payments. Will they also take that into consideration?
Answered in Clearance Questions Section