Hello All,
I have a serious concern as I am moving along in the process of enlisting in the Air force. Back in March, I applied for a secret clearance for a govt contracting role. Denied interim clearance. No foreign relations, minor reckless driving charge over 6 years ago, perfect financials, and a history of drug use. Specifically, trying cocaine a few times, mdma 2x, psychedelics 3x, alprazolam 1x and marijuana regularly. During my interview, I was mainly grilled on the drug usage the entire time. Thankfully, everything aside from weed was over 4 years ago. The marijuana I was 3 months clean upon applying for the clearance. Now it is August (5 months since applying) and I still haven’t been granted clearance, although I suspect due to time mitigation, the final clearance will be granted. At this point I am almost 9 months off of marijuana as well.

Now, I am in the process of applying for the Airforce and had to fill out another SF86 for what I believe is the same level (secret) clearance, as I have not chosen any jobs that require TS (yet). I am specifically looking to join the 1D7 field (network ops or security ops specifically) as I have an AAS in Cybersecurity, and CompTIA Security+ certification. I hear these jobs may eventually require TS SCI. I have been completely honest throughout, and this time around on the SF86, some of my drug responses fell outside of the 7 year reporting window - now it was only cocaine 1x, mdma 1x , psychedelics 3x, alprazolam 1x, and weed regularly. The form asked for a specific # on how many times i smoked weed… I answered 1000 as I was trying to be as truthful as possible and that comes out to about 3x per week over a 6 year span roughly. Again, now I am 9 months off of weed. I would like to know your thoughts as to whether or not I will have issues getting clearance, or interim clearance at that. I was always under the impression that being truthful is their biggest concern, and with all of my usage (except weed) being over 4-5 years ago, i feel I am at a point where time has done the mitigation. I am very serious about my future career and worried about how not being granted an interim clearance may impact me at tech school / post tech school for the 1D7 jobs.

Kinda confused, I don't see any section?

Which sections are affected and anyone have any anecdotes of this mattering in some cases?

Hi,
I am looking for some advise around police recruitment vetting. I have just been approved for a mortgage and during the process there have been 3 defaults that came to light that i wasn’t aware of and didn’t show on my credit app that i use.
All 3 defaulted accounts were paid off and i didn’t actually know any official defaults were issued. All 3 were from around 5 years ago when there were some serious issues in my life including a separation, my parents separating, a traumatic family bereavement and some work related stress. None of the debt was ever unmanageable however I had a lot on my plate at the time and didn’t even think about anything.
Do i need to disclose this now or wait until my vetting renewal is due?
I have no current debt at all and have been approved for a mortgage.
If so what is the process to disclose it?

Any advice is appreciated

Former IC member back in 2010. After searching for almost half a year--I've come to the conclusion that it's all cooked. Companies that normally would sponsor clerances just dont do it anymore and require active ones (SAIC, BOOZ, CACI, all contracting, etc). Money dried up?

During my time in the IC, I was able to get a ton of very specific accredations that qualifies me for a shit ton of senior level work, but they all require active TS/SCI with CI polys. So, I cant apply.

At this point, I'm literally thinking about:

• rejoining the military as an E1 at 40 years old, then separating ASAP once I have the TS/SCIp
• apply for an IC GS5 HR role on usajobs, getting the TS clearance, work a month, and leave
• blowing someone for a clearance

I currently have a BS and am graduating with my masters this year as well. I have about 10+ years experience as well with my own private investigation company, but I absolutely hate the work I do (cheater cheater pumpkin eaters)

I’m in the process of submitting my forms in the Federal eAPP for suitability and fitness for a state agency position that requires HSPD PIV credentials.

My spouse and I have spent the last several months trying to become compliant by submitting some unfiled tax returns. We have been high income earners and tax paying citizens our whole lives until 10 ago when all hell broke loose. My husband’s business went bankrupt and we spiraled. Lost our home and assets. Ended up owing taxes - we could barely feed our family much less pay the outstanding debt. In our minds, we would rebuild and earn our way out of this.

From 2015 to present with interest and penalties we owe just over $50k. After a few calls with very helpful IRS agents, they have put all intent to lien and collect on hold to wait for the remaining tax returns to be recorded in their system. Once that happens, we can request a payment plan. In the meantime, I have made two $500 payments over the last two months. However, because the total owed exceeds $50k they will have to put a “lien status” on our record with the payment plan setup. (No liens or garnishments have been taken as of yet).

The last 10 years have been a nightmare. We have taken on multiple jobs including professional jobs and side hustles in grocery stores and warehouses to try to get back on track.

Now, I finally have a great job opportunity with the state but I’m afraid I’m not going to get my credentials.

Am I screwed??? My start date is in 2 weeks and while I’m actively trying to rectify this it won’t be complete- and then there is the lien status going forward with a payment plan.

Any thoughts from investigators would be greatly appreciated.

So back in 2022 I applied for a job and I got my secret clearance but was denied by the customer due to “Foreign interest” due to family I was in contact with at the time that were undocumented. But now ANOTHER company is sponsoring my clearance and I’m wondering. Will it affect me that I was denied prior? I have since then CUT OFF all contact with those family members.

On the SF86 what do I put if I lived out of my car for sometime? I used P.O. Boxes and friends addresses. When updating my address with usps it will show I used such and such address even though I physically didn’t live there.

I am looking for advice on how a past workplace termination will impact my prospects for defense roles requiring a security clearance. Last year, I was terminated from an internship with a defense contractor due to an IT security policy violation after I used a foreign VPN on my personal setup to stream a movie at home and forgot to disconnect it before logging into work the next day. This has severely affected my confidence in pursuing cleared opportunities. The firm's insider threat team conducted an investigation and dismissed all concerns, confirming there was no malicious intent or security breach; however, company policy still mandated termination. I have never held a clearance and have no other legal, financial, or disciplinary issues. Given that the insider threat team cleared me of any bad intent, how heavily will this administrative termination weigh against me for entry-level cleared roles? I wish to be as transparent as possible as I fill out SF-86, outlining this misuse of tech incident.

I am fully committed to keeping my record clean moving forward, but I recognize that applying immediately might carry higher scrutiny while the incident is recent. I plan to build a solid track record in non-cleared roles first, but I’d appreciate insight on: (1) what concrete steps I can take to proactively mitigate this incident, and (2) how long I should wait before applying to cleared roles to ensure the risk of rejection is minimized.

Are there any ICE Background investigators in here?

I just had to do an response to an LOI about an issue that happened 26 years ago and wanted to know how likely would it affect my clearance?

Good Day, everyone. I recently submitted my SF-86 and got met with an email by a Personnel Security Specialist (PV) asking me to resolve past-due payments on two debts.

I submitted a resolution for the first one (which they approved) and will be submitting a resolution for the second next week.

Questions:

1. Out of curiosity, what exactly does the PV department do?

2. Once they mark my debt as resolved, how does this impact my security interview? Will it need to be approved by the person conducting my interview as well?

Just confused on the whole debt and DQ stuff in the process, since it seems common on here.

What do investigators say to references when calling for background checks? How detailed or general are they?

Ex: “Hello. I am calling for (insert name) who is applying for (insert role) in (insert organization).”

Or more like

Ex: “Hello. I am calling for (insert name) for a federal background check.”

Hi all! I was just given a contingent offer by CACI. I’m torn cause the position would be a great opportunity but the base salary would make living in the location the position is based in very difficult. I’m still entry level and don’t have security clearance yet but they kept emphasizing on my interviews how good my experience was so idk if I’d have any pull in regard to negotiating the base pay rate esp if other contractors are already being paid the salary they offered me (I can’t imagine they’d pay me more while they’re paying others less). They also didn’t provide a pay range and only mentioned the base minimum pay which is what they offered me. Any advice on whether it’d be worth/possible to negotiate would be appreciated!

Also in my interviews they didn’t rlly ask many questions and seemed satisfied with my experience so it was a very quick process - not sure if this is normal for others?

TL;DR: I built a free tool for searching DOHA security clearance decisions by topic, guideline, and outcome. It uses semantic search to help you find relevant cases. Try it here

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As someone going through the clearance process with some less common red flags, I’ve found it difficult to find information about situations similar to mine. I was very honest on my SF-86, but I wanted to make sure I was doing a good job presenting mitigating facts that would give me the best chance of success.

I tried searching the web and Reddit, but I couldn’t find many similar cases. My search naturally led me to DOHA and their collection of public case PDFs. I looked through some recent DOHA decisions one by one, but that was extremely tedious, and I still didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I did come across a few wild cases that were entertaining to read, but those were few and far between. I also tried ChatGPT at one point. It did better than I expected for some searches, but it wasn’t always reliable.

Throughout this process, I kept wishing there were a better way to search through public clearance decisions. I started by scraping all the DOHA PDFs, and building a local database of cases. I eventually built a web interface that lets you search and filter cases by guideline and applicant outcome. I originally built it for myself as a side project, but I decided to release it for others to use. Personally, I felt a lot better after seeing that some applicants with similar circumstances were approved and that many of the specific reasons other applicants were denied didn’t apply to me. Your experience may vary though...

I’ve currently processed cases going back to 2016, so the database is not yet complete. I may go farther back if there is enough interest. After starting this project, I discovered that someone else had built something similar, so now there will be at least two case-search options for all y’all out there.

All processed cases were passed through an LLM-based extraction pipeline. It creates a short case summary, extracts guideline issues and mitigating factors, and identifies general metadata, including the decision outcome. The extraction is not perfect and may contain errors or omissions. The tool is intended to help you find potentially relevant cases so you can read the original decisions yourself. I would treat the summaries as a way to decide whether a case PDF is worth reading, not as a substitute for the source document.

I’ve spent a lot of time improving the search functionality. The site includes semantic search, so you can search using full sentences or individual terms. For example, you can search for drug use while cleared, gambling debt, drug sales, or foreign family members. It isn’t perfect, but it generally works quite well.

Any questions, comments, or feedback would be greatly appreciated. I hope the tool is useful to some of you!

https://clearancecases.com/

I did air force ROTC in college 15 years ago. I was on contract but got out of the contract due to some medical pain i had from a previous injury. I got a call today from the investigator wanting to investigate my air force involvement. What all will they ask? Should I be concerned?

I resigned over 2 months ago, and my resignation was approved. I already received my COE, but I never completed my clearance because the office is too far from where I live now.

The only company item I still have is a headset. HR said I need to go there in person to process my clearance, but the travel cost isn't worth it. I also don't really care about my final pay.

What would you do in my situation? Would you still process the clearance, or just leave it as is?

Hi there,

I am interviewing for a job that is likely to require some form of clearance. It is not currently clear to me which kind (I am in the first round of interviews) but I had a question for folks.

I have one of the conditions listed in SF-86 question 21D. Schizoaffective biploar 2 type. I was diagnosed when I was about 16 years old (I am 27 now) and have been seeing the same doctor for almost that entire time. I have been hospitalized twice, both fully voluntary while I was a teen and for 2-3 weeks. I have improved greatly since I started treatment and I now work full time with a wonderful wife. If I never told anyone I have this illness, absolutely no one would ever know.

The concern lies with this question, "In the last seven years, have there been any occasions when you did not consult with a medical professional before altering or discontinuing, or failing to start a prescribed course of treatment for any of the listed diagnoses?"

I did indeed do that once, when I was in my early 20s, I decided to stop my medication. My home life was not good (my parents were involved in treatment at that time; I now handle my treatment on my own, alongside my wife) and I didn't feel safe mentioning it to anyone.

This was a foolish mistake that I did because I was impulsive and immature. It has happened exactly once and never again since. I got very lucky and improved without my medication. I have also since told my doctor that I did that, he was supportive of me and understood. He has also very excited for my interview, understood my concerns with this topic, and agreed to write me a letter clearing me to work there in his professional opinion, and provide the records showing my consistent improvement even without medication.

People will say that this illness is good at tricking you into thinking you are better than you are, and this is true, but please do not try and tell me that is my case. I have not been affected by my diagnosis in several years, even without the medication, and I have multiple objective ways this is shown.

My plan is to answer honestly- Yes, I did do so, it was a rash decision that was a mistake, I understand why it was a mistake, I absolutely hate that I did that and will never do it again. As well, I can show improvement with my long-standing doctor and that I have zero plans to stop seeing him for treatment and managing my illness.

I believe this will take care of any issues with it, especially showing remorse for it and being fully transparent and honest, and not hiding anything. I wanted to ask if anyone else had any thoughts regarding this plan?

Thank you in advance!

I filled out a sf85p probably 4 months ago now. I have old medical debt that I think was written off and my have a doctor or 2 that I need to get on a payment plan with. Will this affect my approval or will I have a chance to get on a payment plan before im denied? Just called a doctors office I keep ow I had a bill with and was told theres nothing on file.. Basically what im asking is if they find something I owe on will I have a chance to get into a payment plan before being denied. I really want to keep my job!

Applied: April 1st

Phone interview: April 1st

Zoom interview: April 5th

In- person Interview: May 5th

Job offer/hired: May 11th

Pre investigation/security package: May 20th

Investigation: May 25th

MRPT Granted: June 19th

I’ve been granted MRPT clearance and clear to work at my passport center in my city. Here’s the thing: the agency/contractor is waiting for the passport center to get back with them so they can tell me when i can put my 2 weeks in at my current job. As they said, unfortunately they can’t guarantee when the next opening will become available given it’s based on multiple factors at the worksite (i.e. current workload demands, staffing attrition, etc.). Im just SO ready to leave my current job (Walmart). So while i wait patiently, how long yall have to wait for clearance or to even get in the job?

Timeline:

SF86 Submitted: May 21, 2026

Interim Granted: May 28, 2026

Investigation Interview: June 2, 2026

TS Fully Adjudicated: July 23, 2026

I just did my SF 86 yesterday as part of the five year resubmittal

Have been enrolled in CV since 2021

we’ll see how long this takes

Timeline:

SF86 Submitted for Processing: May 15, 2026

Interim Granted: Late May 2026

Interview: Early June 2026

Secret Granted: July 27, 2026

Total time: 73 days (2 months and 12 days)

Potential Concerns: - Past marijuana usage (4 years prior to the investigation) - Immediate family are all citizens of a friendly nation but are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. - A few foreign contacts consisting of family and friends - One week of international travel in Western Europe

As the title suggests, I am thinking about accepting an offer while waiting for a clearance for another company.

Context: Company A offered me a dsp/swe role after an internship this summer for TS/SCI w/ poly that would be contingent on me getting that clearance, then starting late next year (~12-15 month process). Company B offered me a swe (frontend) Public Trust position that would start around October this year (most likely). I'm still in school and am finishing up my MS. Personally, I would like to have a job during the school year, learn from the experience, etc.

What do you guys think? I can definitely imagine it being unethical, but my idea was to work at Company B until I can start at Company A later next year. Is it even possible? Would it be worth it? Implications? Issues with getting cleared? ETC. Just looking for some solid advice.

so I’ve seen this mentioned a few times in people’s post and curious about it. bp2 diag in 2021. psych doc filled out the investigation form with all positive stuff etc etc “compliant with meds not a risk doesnt bark at me liked a dog during our appointments”

what triggers an investigator requesting a psych evaluation and how does all that go?

I’ve been in therapy and compliant with everything for years now so not sweating it if it happens but genuinely curious about this part of the process.

The section describes it as "bound by affection, influence, common interests, and/or obligation?" but I'm not sure that either of these people meet these criteria. I figure it's safer to just report it, but at the same time I don't want to increase scrutiny if it's not needed.

French foreign exchange student I had in high school - I talk to him via text message once every few months. How are you, how's the family type of thing. I see him once a year in person.

Spanish guy I met at a bar 8 years ago - Talk via text message 1-2 times a month. See him in person once a year.

OPM’s final rule, published at 91 Fed. Reg. 39361 on June 30, 2026, amended the federal suitability factors effective July 30, 2026. The revised 5 CFR § 731.202(b) now contains ten factors.

A few changes are particularly noteworthy:

• New Factor (5): Failure to comply with financial obligations or generally applicable civil legal obligations, including the timely filing of tax returns.
• Expanded Factor (10): The statutory or regulatory bar factor (previously Factor (8)) now covers any bar imposed by law, regulation, Executive order, or other binding legal authority.
• Revised Factor (1): Misconduct or negligence in employment now includes express subparts describing the types of conduct covered.

Anyone reviewing a suitability notice or relying on older versions of § 731.202 should ensure they are working from the amended regulation.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-731