SF-86c: nearing the end, or false-dawn?

Roughly 27 months after my SF-86 was submitted, I was notified to expect an SF-86c. Does this mean I am nearing the end, or is it just a function of time having passed since my initial SF-86?

For context: I am a first time, TS/SCI direct hire with a non-DOD, IC agency.

12/2017: SF-86 submitted
3/2018: medical & poly; credit pulled
4/2018: meet with investigator; references contacted
6/2018: office assignment

2/26/2020: told to complete SF-86c (798 days since original SF-86).

If anyone has any direct insight, I would appreciate it. Thanks, all!

Hey at least they didn’t want a whole new SF-86!

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Well here are the next steps take a deep breath:

  1. one more round of interview with an investigator asking for references and foreign contacts etc

2 ) A call to schedule poly once again

That’s the norm now

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@Amberbunny2, any insight?

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I read on Federal Soup a bunch of guys getting the SF86c request 1-2 months before final clearance at a similar agency to the one you applied to. So I would see it as a good sign.

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The IC really has it’s own rules, timelines etc. 24 months was the new norm…add in Covid implications…nobody knows. Sounds like somewhere along the line a foreign contact was revealed. If it was innocuous…it remains so. We clearly are a global society. Proven by how the virus spread. Having foreign contacts doesn’t make you a risk. It’s just something that requires scoping. Polys are always aggravating. Never fun. But very little is moving in that community now.

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I think this is the only thing we no for sure. But thanks for the reassurance that there is no bright waving red flag

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I saw those too, which was part of the impetus for this post. I didn’t know the etiquette of naming another page on this site.

Fingers crossed!

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I am in the same boat as you then. I submitted my SF86 21 months ago for a direct hire (first time, TS SCI). Everything is done as far as I can tell, references contacted. I did get a strange call from my investigator last July asking for more references. Radio silence since. I am actually hoping to get the SF86C request because it’s better than hearing nothing and I think it is a positive sign. It at least means your file is not lost.

Their adjudication contract was rewarded about 6 months ago, several phenomenal adjudicators departed as they would not accept a pay cut. Same time there was a full court press to get hundreds of investigators pumping through the backlog. Result? Moved a clog to the adjudication level. Add in covid19…full stop. Ish.

I thought adjudicators were all government people?

“Their” being the IC, or a specific agency? I’ll second @sbusquirrel’s point that I thought IC adjudicators at this specific agency were all direct employees

thanks for your time in responding, @Amberbunny2

Nope. Like most grunt government work, contracted to lowest bidder.

And it sounds like the company that won the contract expected to be able to hire some of the folks currently working on the program at dramatically lower salaries.

With a calculated risk they priced the contract tightly knowing the incumbents accepted a major cut or departed. Confident the government would not end a contract too early in the life cycle. And they were right. At the time…perfect economy, near 100% employment, and those departing had TS SCI Full poly clearance. Fast forward 2 months…abysmal economy, almost nobody hiring…contract is still jacked up. Government cannot mandate pay rate to company. They put boilerplate sentence into “incumbent gets right of first refusal” but that is just a feel good sentence.