I have worked abroad, both for the USG and UNODC in the past few years. In this official capacity, I had professional contact with several foreign government officials. My primary job was the mentoring and training of foreign government investigators and prosecutors. Do I need to report all of these professional contacts in my answer to Question 20b.6, because they are quite numerous?
It has been some time since you have posted this. I am interested to know if you had to list the many government officials that you came in contact with.
My background check is still in process, so my answer may not be of
valuable assistance.
What I did was (in one of the areas provided for explanations) to set forth
the nature of my work abroad and give a generic description of the foreign
contacts I had. I made clear that I was not attempting to hide any of my
foreign contacts, indeed was prepared to provide them, but that they were
numerous and perhaps beyond the scope of what was required. Because my
check is still in process, I don’t know if this will be sufficient.
If you established a “friend” relationship with any moving beyond official duties you need speak to it. Obviously if posted to a position where daily duties take you in contact with multiple foreign nationals all day long…can be captured as just that. Using social media to further contact them re-characterizes the relationship and should be brought forward.