I’m applying to a 3 letter IC agency - TS/SCI. My timeline has been: applied in July 2017, Interviewed November 2017, COE + SF86 January 2018, Med/Poly/Psych Eval July 2018 - no issues. All standard according to everywhere I looked thus far. However since then, nothing happened. References were not called, no record of credit pulled (though they had my credit report in the post psych interview).
Here’s where I need your knowledge: I believe my case is ‘complicated’: I naturalized in 2017, my wife is on a GC. Both from South America from a country with no bad blood with the US. No govt relatives, no frequent visits, no using foreign passport or lingering ties abroad besides immediate family, no drugs or unpaid debt. I lived in many addresses on both east and west coast given my high tech job, that’s about it.
So far nothing moved - there’s zero indication that the SSBI even started (no one got a call, wife wasn’t contacted or poly’ed). What to do now? I read a lot about contacting your Congress Rep. (my own or a rep with better IC ties - like being on the CIA committee?) and how do I go about that? Email and request a meeting without revealing details?
Thanks for your patience, I know there are similar stories here. Seems like they are losing a lot. I lost some of my enthusiasm for the position. I keep getting raises, making the gap between my offer and what I currently make ever greater. There’s some emotional strain given I can’t make definite plans or investments given the wait, and I can’t be 100% emotionally committed on my current job either.
I contacted my Congressman for another issue regarding security clearances. You can go to their website, and their should be a section for contacting them regarding help with a federal agency. You’ll need to send them a form and also send a detailed description of what happened. In my case, someone from my senator’s staff reached out to me within a few weeks, and then I got contacted by an investigator shortly after. The whole process took about 6 weeks. I had a few back and forth phone calls with the Senator’s staff, but that was it.
All of this was just to get my interview started - I am still in the process of waiting and expect a few more months of me being on standby. I think all Congressmen know about the crazy delays, and they can’t push you to the top automatically.
If you think your investigation may be stuck somewhere and forgotten, I don’t think it’ll hurt to ask your Congressman. But I wouldn’t consider it an absolute solution, nor would I say that your Congressman can get your investigation solved overnight.
Do you feel entitled to a job from this organization? I am sure there are thousands of applications that are received daily, it might take a bit to get to you. Take a breath and relax. They will get to you. Dont waste your congress members time with helping you get a job from a potential employer.
I’m sitting in adjudication, which is honestly okay, I’m fine waiting it out for however many months it takes. My congressional rep was very helpful. I couldn’t even get my investigation started because of some issue I was having with OPM, but the rep was able to sort everything out and get things moving for me.
Are you sure nothing has started yet? Have you asked your security officer about the delay, or has anyone you know been interviewed? If it actually has been 3 years of silence I would reach out to your congress rep. Lot of folks on here will tell you not to, but I say go ahead, it won’t hurt.
The Subject’s background investigation timer does not start when the Subject submits their SCA. The investigation starts when the sponsoring Agency released the SCA to the investigator provider. There is always a minimum of a couple days difference - sometimes there is a significant delay.
Is DCSA doing your background investigation? If you are going to the intel community there is a chance that your investigation is being conducted internally and is none of DCSA’s business.
What is SCA? not familiar with the acronym. I did get a call from the agency in Feb 2018 to review the SF-86 over the phone but hasn’t heard from them since then. does that mean they decided to close the file and not move forward?
SCA/eQip/AIP/SF86 - the security clearance application. Sorry for the jargon, SCA is the more common term in here.
The position you apply for is where the different issues complicate your clearance process. All issues are the same to an Agent/investigator - we dig in to get the good/bad information required for the adjudicator to make a determination.
After we submit our report - the requesting agency (and their adjudicator) look at the issues and weigh the risk. Different agencies have different tolerance levers for different issues. The only two common concerns is the Personal Conduct (lying/not being forthcoming) and finances.
Foreign associations/preferences/vulnerabilities are close to being universal, but more sensitive in the IC, Dept of State, and some parts of DoD.
Your immediate foreign family members, especially those outside the US, are a concern. No Subject interview is more of a concern than your wife not being interviewed (spouses are rarely interviewed – why interview someone with so much at stake in your clearance?)
I can’t tell you how/who to contact in Congress. I have my own outlook at that process. You need to be talking to the company FSO that submitted your SCA - they are the ones that are supposed to be monitoring your case — and should know which investigation provider is assigned to your case.
@backgdinvestigator, Thanks for the overview it is very helpful to every one here. my Sf 86 isn’t complex. The issue is that the agency has not scheduled poly/med for me to do after 3 years from submitting the form yet my POC keeps saying “actively processing”. To me there is a disconnect between these 2 facts.
That is on the Agency then. Once we (DCSA) are done provide the report to the requesting agency, we are done with the case with rare exceptions. And to complicate matters, we only do approximately95% of the investigations. There are several agencies that “do their own” (normally using our contractors) and we (DCSA) have nothing to do with the case.
@backgdinvestigator, thanks again. BI hasn’t started either. 3 years from submitting the form but no poly, no md and no BI yet actively processing. Does that make sense?
That normally means the submission is sitting somewhere. The investigation providers don’t get paid until a case is returned to the Agency. There is no incentive for any investigation provider, to include DCSA, to not work submitted cases.