Yet another foreign contacts question

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I’ve read several of the foreign contact questions here, but still have questions about what to include.

My situation is this: I accepted an offer with a defense contractor which requires a secret.

I currently work in the US for a US division of an Indian company and don’t plan on resigning until the interim comes through and I get a start date. We have a contract with a US multinational company, who is our client. The client also has employees in India, who I work with at times.

My manager is in India and my project manager is in India. Obviously I have frequent contact with them, always of a business nature, and always electronically. Additionally, I am tech lead for an offshore team of 4 engineers in India. Also, there are other offshore teams who I assist on issues occasionally. The SF-86 says to “include associates”.

I mean, I am not going to go asking these people their birthdates, where they were born, or their addresses and I am not going to verify their citizenship. Can I just list some names and check the “I don’t know” box for the other items? There are other engineers who reside in the US, they are probably foreign nationals (H1Bs), but I don’t know for sure. And how would I know if they had an affililiation with a foreign government?

My current thinking is to just list my manager, the project manager, and my 4 juniors, just their names, and check “I don’t know” for the details like their birth date, place of birth and addresses.

Any advice on this?

2

I could be wrong, my understanding of the don’t know is when you truly don’t know. Like you deployed with someone and have had ZERO contact with them since the deployment.

3

Many government customers do NOT want you to contact these foreign nationals to obtain this info. It’s hard to say whether you should or not.

4

Impossible not to report. Explain to your contacts what you are doing. They may be forthcoming. Or not. More foreign contact…slower to clear. Just be ready for that

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5

Be very careful telling your foreign contacts you are undergoing a security clearance and attempting to obtain this information from them. I speak with certainty when I say that some government customers/agencies do NOT want you to seek out this information from them and prefer you to just report what you know. Ask your security officer and/or hiring person for advice.

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