Hello, May 2025 my secret clearance was suspended by DHS Personnel Security due to my ex wife (we’ve been divorced since 2021) filing a frivolous protective order against me. On the reasons for the suspension, it states criminal activity and failure to report the protective order. The order was filed civilly by my ex. There has never been any police involvement, nobody was ever questioned or detained by law enforcement, and she filed civilly. To my understanding, you only have to report any interaction with law enforcement, which there were none due to it being filed civilly.
The judge denied/dismissed the protective order citing that it was frivolous and lacking any evidence or merit. I had a video call with a personnel security investigator one month ago.
I’ve emailed personnel security almost weekly but they continue saying they are waiting on final information regarding my case even though I’ve provided everything to mitigate any concern including the judges denial letter stating the petitioner could not meet the burden of proof.
I recently got contacted by an investigator from my specific agency to go over the events and will meet with them in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if thats what personnel security are waiting on or not. I have been on leave without pay because of my clearance suspension, and have a 6mo old son which i have not been able to enjoy my time as a new father because of this. Any help or info on how this works will be greatly appreciated.
I have known a few people who either had their clearance suspended or were not granted a higher level of clearance due to situations like this. In all cases that I heard of, it eventually got cleared up. But it can take time, and it sounds like you are not in a position to be sitting around. Given the current shutdown I’m sure it will take even longer.
The investigator will have to write up notes from your interview and send them forward. Other people may need to be interviewed as well. The next step would probably be some kind of adjudication phase. This will all take time, weeks if not months, if it follows the usual timelines.
If you decide to find work, be sure to check to see if you need to report outside employment. It should not be a problem, but you probably need to inform somebody.
It’s just unfortunate that I have the court transcripts and letter from the judge denying it, saying they dont believe the claims my ex made ever happened, and I provide these official documents to personnel security, and it could still take months.
My first meeting was a little over a month ago with a personnel security investigator. My upcoming one is with my current agencies investigator. Not sure if the information gathered from this upcoming one will be shared with personnel security.
The information will be the same regardless since the protective order came as a surprise and I haven’t seen my ex since 2022 and live 3 states away.. This has been going on since May.
Sorry that you’re going through this. I have an infant as well and understand the stress that comes with the uncertainty of a clearance suspension. I’m currently going through a clearance appeal with DHS that’s going on a little under a year. My clearance was suspended in late 2024 and DHS provided me their intent to revoke my clearance 7 months ago. THey allowed me to appeal but I’m still waiting on my hearing date. The DHS adjudicators working my case have acknowledged my case has been delayed due to the significant turnover in the personnel security office. I hope you get clarity on your case sooner than later. However, it seems like DHS personnel security is backed up.
I wonder how much of that is due to the various early-outs. I have heard second and third hand that the security offices at the main intel agencies were particularly hit hard by this, plus additional resignations, and a hiring freeze that would not let them bring on anyone new.
I’m unsure since this is my first time in this situation so I don’t have a baseline, but it can probably be as a result of the early resignations. And also, the Chief Security Officer at DHS was fired/forced to resign in March as well as other leaders in the Security office. All that in conjunction with DHS is one of the few entities ramping up hiring right now.
That’s one of my concerns that all this hiring is going to delay this whole process. I’m sorry to hear about what you’re going through as well. I’m hoping since the courts agreed with my testimony and evidence that the claims my ex made never happened, that there’s no reason for them to revoke my clearance. I’ve never had any other claims against me or interaction with law enforcement, etc. Never had so much as a write up or counseling in my state, local, and now federal career.
Once you submit the dismissal, they are “supposed” to re-adjudicate.
Sometimes they need to be pushed though.
There is really no need for security to interview you. The dismissal is the final arbiter of the case. I would just tell them that none of it happened which is exactly what the judge surmised.
Yes thats what I was hoping to happen. The court date was in August and after the judge denied/dismissed due to no evidence I was so happy to finally get my life back. Yet here I am still waiting on personnel security…
Maybe not as bad as CIA, but DHS is pretty bad right now… what blows me is most DHS positions don’t require cleared work so instead of reassigning someone to a non-cleared DHS position while awaying personnel security, we’re stuck for them to pick up the case while they backed up.