TS/SCI Eligibility and Transferability

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hi, I am new here and have a couple of questions that are (sort-of) tied together.

WARNING: VERY LONG POST

I currently have a DOD Secret clearance (w/SAP) and I applied for a job in the IC. I accepted their conditional offer and filled out the SF-86 about a month ago. The background investigation is officially underway as I will interview with my investigator next week.

  1. What are my chances of favorable adjudication for TS/SCI given the following blemishes on my record (all reported on the SF-86)?

a. 2 speeding tickets (one in 2014, the other in 2017). Both tickets were infractions, not misdemeanors.

b. A foreign contact that I used to have occasional contact with via social media (1-2 times a year) but I haven’t had contact with her since 2016 or 2017 and as of August 2018 have cut off all ties with. She was living in the US at the time I last had contact with her.

Back in April 2018, I was submitted for access to a particular SAP and reported her on one of the necessary forms and mentioned that I hadn’t had contact with her at all for 1-2 years at that time. A representative from the PSO basically said (and I’m paraphrasing here) “We’re lazy and would rather not look into this foreign contact. Since you aren’t close with her, do you want to just go ahead and delete her from social media and fill out the form again saying you have no foreign contacts?”. I said “Sure, no problem” and cut off all ties and sent in the revised form. I was read in about 4 months later.

Just to be clear, I DID report her on the IC SF-86 since the question was a “Have you EVER…” question and mentioned in the comments that I no longer am in contact with her.

Other than the stuff listed, my background is clean. I’ve never had any delinquencies on any debt, never been arrested, never done any recreational drugs (besides alcohol, if that counts), never have traveled outside the country within the last 10 years, have never had a bad performance review or have had any security infractions/violations at my current position, and so on.

  1. Assuming I get favorably adjudicated for TS/SCI, would I be able to have the DOD “pick up” the TS should I decide not to take the job?

I am seriously interested in the job but there are factors being considered which may make me change my mind. Namely, I potentially have another job opportunity that is at my current location so I wouldn’t have to move across the country away from all my friends and family, and if that job comes to fruition, I may pass on the IC opportunity. But that is a big “if” and if that job doesn’t happen and I do get offered the job in the IC, I am definitely taking it.

There have been lots of questions posted on here about clearance transfers, and based on what I have read, my gut feeling the answer is “no” because favorable adjudication only means that I’m eligible for TS/SCI and wouldn’t actually be granted the clearance until I accept the final job offer and get read in to the SCI control systems/compartments.

However, I am also thinking the answer might be “yes” because I am guessing that there would be some record somewhere that states I am TS eligible. If that is the case, would my current supervisor just be able to make up a new TS billet for me and move me to that billet where they could grant me local TS access since I’ve already been determined eligible? Or does that only work if I’ve actually been GRANTED the TS?

I apologize for the dissertation but I just wanted to get all of my thoughts and questions straight.

Thanks in advance for putting up with my lack of conciseness and your input!

1 Like
2

The speeding tickets are not a problem. The foreign contact is not likely to be a problem unless she shows up on a watch list.

You don’t get “granted” a clearance. You only become eligible. The clearance actually belongs to the job and since you are eligible, you can sit at the job. Clearance crossovers are a complicated bit of work. They don’t always happen. Although the DoD probably should accept your IC clearance, they may not.

3

Ed, so if you work at a DOD contractor with a TS clearance and then decide to switch to another contractor within DOD again, do you still have that clearance or do you lose it, since it’s a different job?

4

You have eligibility. So, yes, you can move to another job.

However, your access changes when you get a different job. You only have a “need to know” for the position that you currently occupy.

Not trying to get confusing. Short answer: Yes, you can move around with in DOD.

5

Sorry, just to clarify…do I still have my TS when moving from contractor to contractor within DOD or does the new contractor still need to “renew” it somehow?

6

As a contractor there are so many variables. Different customers may have different standards. Different programs for the same customer may have their own requirements.

I’d say in general if you go from actively cleared directly to another actively cleared job, you should be OK. There are always exceptions. Hopefully the new company’s security office is on the ball and can help figure this out.

7

Thank you. I don’t have a TS yet, still in process, this is just for my knowledge.

8

The Powers That Be (you know, Those Guys) keep talking about mandating greater portability of clearances and reciprocity and all that sort of stuff. In some ways it is getting better, in other ways it is still the same as it ever was.

1 Like
9

Thanks for your response Ed.

I understand the difference between “granted” and eligibility. I am currently on a Secret billet, not a TS billet. What I am wondering about is if the following hypothetical scenario is plausible (apologies if I wasn’t clear before):

  1. Get favorably adjudicated for TS/SCI
  2. Receive final offer from IC
  3. Change my mind and decide not to accept offer
  4. Have my current supervisor create a TS billet for me and move me to that billet from my current billet
  5. Have DOD accept “fact of” TS eligibility from IC (This is the real question here, whether or not its possible and if so, how this works)
  6. Grant me local TS access without having to do another background check

According to my supervisor and security POCs that I’ve talked with, I am pretty sure steps 4-6 are plausible for me (and my supervisor has told me he’d be willing to do that), but I thought I’d ask the professionals here just to double check.

Also, I thought of another hypothetical question.

Let’s say that during their investigation, they come to conclude that I’m not suitable for employment (whether its because the investigation brought up concerns, I wasn’t able to pass the polygraph, etc) and so they decide not to extend a final job offer.

If that’s the case, would that be considered a clearance denial? Or would they just “close” the investigation before the “final” adjudication and just not offer me the job? Or does it just depend on the agency and how they want to handle it? That’s an important distinction to make because I know a clearance denial is a reportable offense and could put my current clearance in jeopardy.

10

Items 4 - 6 COULD be a problem . . . IC and DOD clearances do not always cross over the standards are often very different.

Hypotheticals are difficult to talk about here because there are far too many variables.

11

Fair enough. I don’t need a TS at my current position but having it would open up more opportunities, so I was seeing if I could use the investigation to my advantage in case I don’t end up taking the IC job.

Thanks for your reply.