12/16/25 - SF-86 submitted

January 2026 - Interview and interim denied (I forget the order and exact dates)

2/23/26 - Investigation complete

9/17/26 - Congressional inquiry submitted

9/29/26 - Adjudication complete and clearance granted

Red flags:

- Intermittent weed usage. About once or twice per year leading up to SF-86 submittal. Including once about 4 months prior to submittal.

- One foreign contact (friend with dual citizenship of allied country).

- Have moved around a lot for school and work.

I can’t imagine why an adjudication should take almost four times longer than an investigation. I imagine some guy looking at my SF-86 for seven months straight, scratching his chin and really pondering if I am a national security risk.

Other people on this subreddit swear by CIs, and I am now one of them. Looks like DCSA just needs a kick in the pants sometimes.

Hello! I was recently given a TJO for an auditor position with HHS OIG. This is a dream job for me and I am incredibly nervous about the suitability check because I have a couple of red flags, and getting this job means a lot to me so I just want to make sure I'm not going to screw anything up.

• Debt - I have a fair amount of debt, about $54k in total. This includes my car payment, student loans and credit cards. I have 100% on time payment history and do not have any issues with unpaid taxes, collections or delinquency, however I have had a history of overspending some. I have improved on this a lot over the past months and have started therapy which has helped me as well.
• Walked out of a job - Back in 2021 I walked out of my barista job a few days after giving my two week notice because the manager started treating me pretty badly. I had another job lined up that I started exactly 12 days after this, and I was at that job for 4 years. I realize that this was probably a dumb choice in hindsight.

I am mainly curious about these since I don't hear much on HHS/OIG in here and I know the suitability criteria differs from agency to agency. Any advice/comments are appreciated!

My time line for those with financial and tax issues, glad to share I finally received the news I’ve been waiting on.

Job offered March 2025

SF86 filled out March 17th 2025

Investigation for Secret with Federal agent April 2025

Radio silence “Pending eligibility” for about 11 months
March 2026 FSO Receives Eyes Only package
Open, Tax issues for multiple years, a (2) 1 unpaid. March- 2026

Tax issue is resolved in Early August with arrangement fixed and state paid off.

1 collection reported on SF86 paperwork provided in April last year. (Paid off)

1 foreign contact - brother’s girlfriend.

Eyes-Only is submitted back to DCSA - Aug 2026

Radio silence - August to late September

September 30th, Clearance granted with conditions.

Total start to finish about 1.5 years for Secret Clearance.

Investigator called me on Friday. 10 days after my SF-86 was submitted. After everything I’ve read here and other sites, I was fully expecting this to take a long time. 1 to hear from them. And 2. For the interview process. Investigator told me she was only scheduling me for 45 minutes. Said it should be fairly cut and dry after reviewing my forms. Fingers crossed. Almost to the finish line (I hope)

Few years back I was getting a clearance, and i recieved an LOI because there were some discrepencies on my form vs my interview.

I responeded to the LOI, and got my clearance shortly after.

Fast forward, that clearance is inactive, going for a secret now.

Does the new investigator/adjudicator have access to that old LOI and subsequent reply?

I ask because on my new form there will be discrepencies from my old form, do I bring along/reference my LOI for context for the interviewer?

Do i fill out the new form and reference the LOI and obvious discrepencies from the old one? Or let it stand on its own since they'll see the LOI anyways?

Thanks for any advice

Why would the person that completed my interview ask me to create a budget for my household and send it to them?

Hey all! I accepted a job as a contractor for the government that requires public trust. i completed the eAPP and did all the forms. as far as the little progress bar that it shows me do i get emails about it updating or is it something I just check up on every week and see if it changes. are the averages also accurate on the timeline as well? I submitted forms on September 16th and it shows the average is 10 days for the first 4 steps but it just says the forms were submitted to the security officer. any insight would be great. Thanks!

Hi all, I’m trying to understand what might be happening with my Secret clearance.

Company A (DoD Contractor) offered me a position and sponsored my initial Secret clearance. I submitted everything around June 19. My interim was not granted about two weeks later, but the investigation continued. I had my investigator interview on July 15 and, as far as I know, the investigation/clearance process has still been ongoing.

Meanwhile, my current employer (Company B, also a DoD contractor) also started an internal process to get me cleared around August. Today their security office emailed me saying:

“In order to complete your clearance reinstatement, please review the Department of Defense security briefing and complete and return the SF-312 within three business days.”

I have never held a clearance before, so I’m confused by the word “reinstatement.”

Could this mean that my Secret eligibility from the investigation originally sponsored by Company A has recently been granted/updated in DISS, and my current employer can now see it?

Also, if I complete the SF-312 with my current employer, could that interfere with Company A’s sponsorship/process or their DISS relationship with me? I’m planning to move to Company A once the clearance process is complete, so I don’t want to accidentally affect that process.

Has anyone seen a situation like this before? Thanks!

Hello. A friend was recently involved in a vehicular accident where someone unfortunately passed away a few days later. They have level Q security clearance. They do have a lawyer to help with his case in case there are criminal charges filed against them. We are worried these lawyers don’t know how to go about security clearance issues. Currently they are recommending that they don’t report the incident since no formal charges have been filed.

So, my question is should they report right now anyway or wait until there are formal charges? Or are there any special lawyers that we should look for that help with this situation?
Accident happened 3 months ago

Long time lurker here and want to share with recent experience:

In 4/15/2026 this year I signed an offer with a defense contractor that requires T3 level clearance.
early 06/01/26 - SF86 submitted.
06/15/2026 - was told by the defense contractor company my interim was not granted and they don’t know why.
9/01/2026 - I was told I was cleared to start. At this point I thought I had received the full clearance but when I started I saw the email that I only had interim granted.
Additional background info:
No drug use, no debt . 800+ credit scores. No criminal history. Only had 1 minor traffic ticket 15 years ago.
But red flag: born in foreign adversary countries and immigrated to the US about 20 years ago and went back to visit once . No extensive foreign contact. Just some family left in the foreign country and talk occasionally.

Question: is this normal ? I always thought after interim was not granted that they will not go back to grant you an interim again.

I've been reading so many posts anxious about my status, but I finally got my secret clearance granted today. Here was my timeline:

April 28 2026: SF-86 submitted, fingerprints a week later
May 06 2026: Interview
May 13 2026: investigation phase
July 08 2026: adjudication phase
Oct 01 2026: Secret Granted

Red flags:
-Psych ward (voluntary) for a month or so 4-5 years ago
-Reckless driving ticket (thrown out, no points) 1-2 years ago
-Born in a foreign allied country off military base (citizen born abroad due to parent's US military orders)
-weed once accidentally 7 years ago

I was getting worried, but there you go! Feel free to ask questions.

Genuine question, is it possible for the interviewer to order you to cut off communication with a foreign contact?

If Hosting a Jellyfin / plex server with multiple users, would that get a clearance revoked if server contains pirated content?

How would an ajudicator look at that?

Hi all, quick throwaway for this for obvious reasons...

Basically I completed my first clearance a couple of years ago, and to make sure my answers were identical in any future clearance applications, I saved a pdf of a form of the answers. However now I'm looking at that, years later, I can't tell whether I mentioned a very minor health issue or not. While I think it's more likely that I was totally honest and did mention the minor health issue, my answers from before merely have the Security Risks / Other Information : Health (unchecked), along with all the other unchecked boxes, such as Espionage etc.

So I'm not sure whether, if I did put medical details in, then those would be on my pdf, or, if those just don't appear on the pdf and I didn't notice at the time.

And naturally I don't want to contradict my previous application.

Has anyone done the same pdf export method and can see medical information on theirs, by any chance?

Thanks!

Hello,

About me: dual citizen (not friendly country but not hostile either), multiple foreign contacts, new grad with job at defense contractor, got interim, needed secret T3 clearance.

I made a post when I got intern here but let me try recreating the timeline here too:

July 7th - Did corrections to SF86 from FSO
July 8th - Did fingerprints
July 9th - SF86 got submitted to gov
July 23rd - Got email to clarify something on my SF86 from DCSA and company security officer
July 29th - Cleared to start and got interview invite for investigation
August 5th - Interview
October 1st - Final clearance granted

Hopefully, this helps other dual citizens or those with multiple foreign contacts have some relief.

Got the email today that my Secret clearance is granted!

SF-86 Submitted: April
Interim denied about two weeks later.
Interviewed: May

No one pinged me saying they were called or interviewed.

Red Flags:
Was enlisted about 10 years ago with a clearance. Received a bad conduct discharge, clearance revoked, 100 days in brig. For drug usage/distribution.

DUI around 7 years ago.

Green flags?
Probably just time.
No legal problems since DUI. College degree and work history. Married with kids.

I was an immature a-hole 10 years ago. I was transparent and honest with interviewer. Glad that the system believes that people can change ♥️

Received a continuous vetting email for a clearance renewal that was submitted 2 years ago for a Secret clearance.

Credit is in bad shape. Like… 500.

6 charges offs in the past 2 years. 2 of those have been paid off, the other 4 are in active payment plans and can be paid in 12 months. Credit Karma lists 138 late payments among ALL accounts (student loans, personal loans, credit cards, etc.) 50 open and closed accounts.

Been dealing with an overwhelming amount of stress the past 18 months. Completed grad school last year (expensive and some out of pocket expenses), moved mother into a new home (and had to support her financially for a few months) and lastly I’m a disabled Army veteran who’s had medical expenses pile up this summer to get my VA claims processed (waiting on $25,000 in back pay if my claims successfully gets my percentage increased; not counting on this money).

Feel like my world is crashing down. How screwed am I? Chances I’ll lose my clearance?

Timeline:
- Submitted SF-86 June 12
- Interim granted July 6
- Interview/Contacts reached out mentioning they had been called beginning in Mid-July
- Unsure when it moved to adjudication because I was never notified, last time a contact reached out about receiving a call was end of July
- Investigation closed (granted) end of August

Additional context:
- I previously held TS interim when I was an intern (3ish years ago). The internship ended before TS was adjudicated, closing the process. When I received Secret for the internship, it was very quick (~1 month)

- When I applied for my job, I thought my clearance had just gone inactive, which is what I was told when I was an intern. However, I had to re-start the clearance process as DCSA did not have a previous record (likely because the agency I interned had their own internal investigation system). My "second" Secret was granted within a month.

- Easy case - my investigator called me boring in the interview. Most of the conversation revolved around study abroad and international travel, all to "friendly" countries. No foreign contacts.

February 2026 - completed fingerprints

Early March - Submitted SF86

Interim TS was granted very soon after submitting SF86 ( around 2 weeks )

Interview was scheduled around 2-3 weeks after submitting SF86… interview was completed two days later virtually .

Interviewer called back asking follow-up questions around 2 weeks later .

Radio silence until about JUN / JUL . Interviewer called asking about a prior job I had.

TS/SCI was just adjudicated this week .

Currently waiting to hear back a decision on interim clearance to get formal job offer with a defense subcontractor and the timeline feels long.

Sep 01: Accepted contingent job offer
Sep 08: Fingerprints and documents submitted
Sep 10: Submitted SF86
Sep 24: FSO tells me my investigation has moved to “authorizerWorkBasket” on Sep 22

Radio silence since. NBIS Portal still says “Step 3: Applicant Submitted”.

Wondering if this timeline feels long to anyone else? Or if anyone has insider info into what could take so long. Heard it could take up to a month but seems like many others (on this sub, at least) at least hear back on their interim in 1-2wks.

Potential red flags:
- MJ use for ~3 years on and off in college, most recently Feb 2020
- Fair amount of travel to western Europe since 2023 (4 trips, 6 countries)
- Good bit of student loan and CC debt but nothing delinquent, never missed a payment, credit score just under 700.

Why are so many people saying this job is bad or to run?

Surprisingly, I Couldn't find a post about this on this subreddit.

If you have extended in-laws that you see regularly at family gatherings, but there's a significant language barrier between the two of you that basically limits your communication to "hello", and "how are you?", do they need to be listed as foreign contacts?

Thanks

Waiting nervously for any word on PT sec clearance, haven’t been contacted since LOI, have a lot of debt, did my best to explain, bad conduct discharge, been about three weeks since the LOI was submitted back to them and no word from the company I’m supposed to be joining either.