Special Circumstances for Foreign Contacts - SF86

I lived abroad for 7 years and 3 of those years fall within the past 7. For the past 2.5 years I have been a DSO (Designated School Official) for a university here in the USA, where I issue I-20’s for international students who want to apply for an F-1 visa. I have close and continued contact via email, phone, and eventually in person if they become one of our students. This happens with about 100-150 students over the course of an academic year. They come from all over the world. So on my SF-86, I listed the 50 current students at the time of my application with full name and country of origin, and stated my professional connection to them. Is that sufficient? If they really needed it, I suppose I could list ALL applicants that ever came through our system, including their D.O.B and addresses, as I have access to their student files and records, but it would be an incredibly long list.
Do you think there is anything else I needed to add in this area for my SF-86?

So . . . You made 150 new, close, friends, every year? My guess is that you really could have just described your job and let the investigator decide what needs to be reported. These are work contacts, not personal contacts. I doubt that you go out for drinks or socialize other than at school events.

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Please, if there is a god, don’t let me get your case.

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You just jinxed yourself. Now you will get the case and the Subject would have only listed one or two of the 150. And those two will not include the three that are retired foreign intelligence officers that are “no longer in that business”. (disclaimer, the one I had with this issue - listed the retired foreign intelligence officer as one of the three LCRs but not as a foreign association - I caught it when I asked the Subject why his friend lived in that country)…

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I concur with Ed. Close continuing professional contact as you engage them in getting registered for school is one thing…hanging out with them as friends after they are a part of school is different. Backg mentioned an interesting point: former Intell officers who “retire” but seek to attend a school in the US…ripe grounds to foment insurrection, gather intell, etc. Some cultures follow the adage “every person a sensor” meaning everyone gathers and reports up the chain all they encounter in the US. Essential elements of friendly information. So it isn’t a stretch to think at least a few of the students you recruited in the past were here to collect Intell data.

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Back in the stone age, one of my first check rides had about 50 listed foreign contacts. As I painstakingly went through each one, asking all the laundry list of questions per contact, I could see my supervisor’s will to live evaporate in his eyes.

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