What determines how long adjudication will take?

There’s an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (“A Piece of the Action”) where Captain Kirk is making up the rules of a fake card game to buy time. It is utter nonsense and incredibly convoluted.

I think the adjudication process must work along a similar set of rules, at least for the folks who do not get adjudicated quickly. :crazy_face: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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I like to think of the “Bob’s” scene from Office Space.

Companies do not pay for the clearances, the requesting federal agency pays for the investigation. Background investigations are normally not directly appropriated (funded) by Congress, but are part of every agency’s funding which is then “given” to the ISP (normally DCSA) to pay for investigations.

I was sponsored by my first company in June 2017 and wasn’t cleared until July 2019. Literally waiting for almost 6 months before I received a phone call from anyone. Once I met with my investigator she was really surprised about how long I had been waiting to be interviewed. Luckily I still had a full time job that point but it’s a grueling process for some. I basically gave up at a point assuming that it was never going to happen. One of my contractors had turnover in July 2019 and by a stroke of luck that’s exactly when my TS was approved and I got a awesome job about 2 weeks later. Hang in there man it will happen.

I was surprised your company didn’t rescind the job offer due to how long the process took. I have a conditional offer with a DoD aerospace contractor and I’m worried 4 months in they are going to give up my spot because of how long the process takes. This position requires a Secret and Special Program Access…so I don’t get a start date until I’m cleared.

Is the job still being advertised? If not they aren’t actively looking.

If it is being advertised…

Wow - Your schedule is close to mine → I am an IC Contractor.

September 2019: Submitted Clearance
October 2019: Clearance Assigned an Investigator
October 2020: Investigation Completed
November 2020: In Pre-Adjudication Phase (to be assigned a case adjudicator)
April 2021: Still in Pre-Adjudication Phase (Per FSO, they cannot provide a timeline on when my case is assigned)

@bness2020 Unfortunately (not really though if you get me) I have an ex-wife and kids in a FVEY country with lots of foreign travel and foreign contacts. No adversarial countries or anything, all people in-country, but it’s still going to hold me up…or is holding me up.

Honestly I was also surprised they didn’t rescind the offer. What ended up happening is that the position I originally was offering became unavailable by the time my clearance was granted. Luckily there was another one that was similar in the pipeline that they were able to slot me in for because it took so long and my experience was too valuable to them. I hated the wait and no responses. Once I finally got a call then the ball started rolling a bit faster. I believe at the time there was still a major backlog in cases so I guess the fact that it took so long made sense. My FSO told me that they loose a lot of contracts or good candidates because people can’t afford to put there life and families security on hold because they have to wait two years. It opens up a world of opportunities though. A week after I got granted a TS I was being contacted by recruiters left and right so I think there is something in the system that shows you with a clearance. Idk I may be wrong just a thought.

Companies do not pay for BI’s, Uncle Sam does

I just received word from my FSO that my secret clearance for a defense aerospace contractor was granted. It took a total 151 days from when I submitted my EQIP.

Conditional Job Offer - 11/2/20

Fingerprints - 11/10/20

EQIP - Submitted - 11/24/20

Credit Pulled - 2/17/21

Current Employer Contacted - 2/26/21

Subject Interview - 3/16/21

Reference 1 Contacted - 3/18/21

Reference 2 Contacted - 3/19/21

Received note from my FSO that my Clearance granted - 4/4/21

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Not the fastest, but under six months so that is pretty quick. Also note that the investigation was still underway as of 3/19; it probably took about a week after that to get wrapped up and sent to adjudications, meaning adjudication took two weeks or less. You may be able to get an exact date when your investigation completed from your FSO if they have access to DISS/JPAS.

Private contractors pay for security clearances.

That is a common misconception. The requesting agency provides the funds that pays for the investigation.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj3sqGQjqLxAhVNvJ4KHUPDA2cQFjABegQIAxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.clearancejobs.com%2F2020%2F05%2F11%2Fwho-pays-for-security-clearances%2F&usg=AOvVaw3jM3Y90z_gty92zHADxr-8

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That’s what I thought. And if you look at the fees charged, it doesnt seem like a whole lot of money.

The cost to contractors is paying uncleared people a salary while they are awaiting clearance. Most companies now seem to handle this by not actually bringing people on the payroll until they’re cleared, unless they do have unclassified work that they can work on (and charge their time to).

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I have an update from my clearance. I am finally good to go. Below is my updated timeline.

September 2019: Submitted Clearance
October 2019: Clearance Assigned an Investigator
October 2020: Investigation Completed
November 2020: In Pre-Adjudication Phase (to be assigned a case adjudicator)
April 2021: Still in Pre-Adjudication Phase (Per FSO, they cannot provide a timeline on when my case is assigned)
** early June 2021: Case assigned an adjudicator and talked with adjudicator to review / verify information since my paperwork was 2 years old !!!
** mid June 2021: Received notification that my clearance was favorability adjudicated !!!

The cost is an annual guesstimate of how much DCSA’s vetting operation costs divided by the guesstimate of cases,

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I was just curious, you spoke to the adjudicator? I also spoke to someone other than the background investigator assigned to my case, however she never mentioned her title. Our timeline are similar except I have-not received decision yet.

Yes → The meeting was set-up my company security officer and asked for available times to speak to my adjudicator.

ohh thats good to know !! I was a little puzzled when my security officer referred to him as a “customer”. I had my interview in late May. hopefully I get the good news soon. Cheers.