r/SecurityClearance

hello all i have a question for my clearance situation. I accepted the offer with RTX on April 24th 2026, set up a tentative start date of July 13th 2026. I got sent the SF86 form on June 12th 2026 and submitted it that day. Then I got some kickback and resubmitted it on June 16th 2026. My interim was not granted for whatever various reasons and I didn’t know it was denied until I reached out to my recruiter and she told me so through the onboarding specialist weeks later. I had my first interview with the investigator on July 9th 2026, then I received another phone call from the investigator on July 29th 2026 where she asked more questions then she also requested to interview my brother on my behalf on the same July 29th 2026 asking questions about my character and how was I growing up and when we traveled and etc. Which then she told me that same day I should hear back about my adjudicated clearance decision soon. Then the investigator reached out to me again August 10th asking for clarification on some of my internship work history.

I wanted to ask when do you all think I will hear back about my adjudicated clearance decision?

some mitigations on my case:
• was born in a foreign country but received citizenship at birth due to my dad through the FS-240 form.
• traveled to level 3 country in 2019 for church conference for about 2 weeks but haven’t been in contact with anyone since that time.
• had an account opened in my name through my mom
when i was younger but i cleared up the confusion during my first interview with the investigator.
• had some MJ usage in college but was straightforward with that on my application and told the investigator straight up and was asked about it in my phone interview on July 29th 2026.

Thrilled to be finally making this post! It was a hard wait, and started to feel like I would never see the day it was over, but I was finally granted a DoD Secret clearance today!

Timeline:

Apr 9th: Signed an offer w/ DoD contractor

~Apr 14th: submitted fingerprints and sf-86

May 5th: received SF-86 back for correction on a phone number

May 19th: Informed I was not granted an interim

May 29th: investigator interview, references contacted

July 7th: heard from my former boss (he and I are on good terms) that they were contacted via mail and he was sending the form back. He said he wasn't sure how long it was sitting there and that they rarely check.

Aug 19th: Clearance granted!

Red flag(s): I live with a foreign national (not romantically involved, just roommates). My investigator asked a bit about my roommate in the interview, and asked some of my references about him. Everything else was pretty straightforward, afaik.

Big thank you to everyone in this community that helped to keep me sane while I was waiting. I am beyond thrilled, and I am happy to answer any questions about my experience for fellow applicants.

Hello all

I just received this bad news regarding my suitability clearance for the CF position.

The Suitability Review Panel has concluded that your candidacy for employment as a Foreign Service CS/LNA should be terminated because of:

Criminal, dishonest, or notoriously disgraceful conduct as referenced in 3 FAM 2215.2-6 (4).

In reaching this decision, the Panel considered the following:

• You traveled to Cuba between October 31, 2023 and November 4, 2023 despite a federal prohibition against such travel, and failed to meet any of the exceptions permitted under U.S. law for such travel.

Has anyone been successful after appealing this decision recently?

I went from FL, and i marked support of cuban people as I was told. I stayed away from any government businesses. Stayed at a casa particular, ate at mom and pop places and supported local/independent guides.

I hope there is hope here.

I currently hold an active Secret clearance and may be looking at positions that require a TS. My only concern is that I have a few accounts in collections from loans that were used to cover medical expenses under 18k. Im currently making payments toward the balances and actively working on resolving them.
Other than the collections, I don’t have any criminal history or other major issues that I’m aware of that would raise concerns during an investigation. I’ve already been through the clearance process for my current Secret.
Has anyone here been approved for a TS while having collections that they were actively making payments on? Mainly wondering whether the fact that the debts are being addressed/paid makes a significant difference during adjudication & render me completely unable to obtain one.

Timeline:

May 2026: submitted SF-86

June 2026: interim secret denied

July 2026: interview completed, 2 follow up questions from an investigator later in the month

August 2026: reached out to my security specialist to ask for a status update, 2 days later the secret clearance was granted

One reference contacted. Whole process was less than 3 months.

Yellow / Red flags:

Numerous foreign contacts but all from friendly countries; one contact served in their country’s government. Lots of drug use that stopped around 3 years ago. Included psychedelics (one time in a foreign country), cocaine, frequent marijuana use, and a couple other things like that. Funny enough, they didn’t seem to care about the drug use, they really cared about the foreign contact from another country’s govt (obvious in hindsight I guess).

If I could offer any advice: in addition to being 100% honest, I’d be as specific and give as much context as possible (especially in the interview). On the form, I didn’t leave anything blank - if I didn’t know something, I hunted down a family member or friend and got that info from them. Giving them all the info (I think) means they don’t have to find it themselves.

Finally, this subreddit is awesome and provided lots of good advice. Good luck everyone!

Hello, I’m 19F in the Air Force Reserves, I got cleared for a 1D7X1 AFSC (Cyber operations) and I am in the process of getting a TS/SCI. I’ve been as honest as possible on the SF-86, and my first interview is today. I am nervous about getting polygraphed because I’m afraid of failing even if I’m honest. I’m kind of a nervous person and I’m paranoid about them thinking I’m being dishonest when I’m not. I disclosed my one time use of weed when I was 15, and all my civil involvements.

I had an ex who I had to file a restraining order on and report to the police after he threatened to kill me when I found out he had cheated. He filed two orders in retaliation, but he was forced to drop them because of a lack of evidence. He got a felony harassment charge and a violation of ex parte charge later on because he violated my protection order while it was active.

I feel like I did everything correctly in handling the situation, like going to the police immediately and reporting everything that happened. Will they hold this against me?

Please let me know if you guys have any advice, thank you!!

Red flags:

Dismissed felony for terrorist threats as a preteen

3 mental hospitalizations as a pre teen and young teenager

Smoked weed a year and a half ago

I don't even know how to mitigate this because I don't even

I was in an extremely rough situation during that time. My primary caretaker became severely addicted to drugs and I had to live with a parent who had not been in my life for several years. That other parent has diagnosed, violent schizophrenia.

I learned all of that behavior from my mother, my father and the internet. I had no actual intention of committing a terroristic threat I was just making a stupid joke and had no idea people would take it seriously.

I have not engaged in any criminal behavior as an adult (except a little bit of speeding, but no DUIs or reckless driving). I have not attempted suicide or even been depressed. The last time I spoke to a therapist is when I developed a temporary fear/fixation about the concept of dying one day. I don't know how to explain my actions because I don't understand why I did them. Is this career path just not for me at this point?

Edit: thank you all for letting me know this isn't happening. I have withdrawn my acceptance of the position to avoid wasting my employers time

Hey, I hold a T3S and I have a closed loop cruise planned that has mexico in its route.

What do I need to do to ensure everything is done right and keep my clearence?

After filing out my SF 86 I realized I have quite a few red flags. I’m wondering what my chances are of getting cleared. Appreciate any insight.

Red flags:

Finances -

- 2025 taxes paid late (resolved)

- 2023 taxes paid late (resolved)

- 2022 taxes not filed, no taxes owed (long story but after reviewing my taxes, I realized 2022 taxes were never filed. They have since been prepared by a tax preparer and mailed to the IRS. I am waiting on the IRS to review and file as of mid july 2026. I do not owe the IRS or state any money.

- medical debt around ~$1k went to collections (resolved)

- medical debt around $16 went to collections (resolved)

Foreign Contacts:

- 2 foreign contacts from Pakistan. Both are my aunts who attended my wedding in the US earlier this year. I also came in contact with them in 2024 when I visited Pakistan. I do not keep in continuous or close contact with them and have only ever talked to them in person. In fact, I hardly know anything about them and only have been in contact with them at my wedding and when I visited Pakistan.

Foreign travel:

- traveled to Pakistan in 2024 with my father as I wanted to experience what life was like there and visit the mountains. Also visited my dad’s family.

Hello!

I work at a place that requires us to have a public trust clearance. I’ve had multiple background investigations across several agencies without any issues, but my last was about 5 years ago and during that in between time I had a lot of things pop up. Not to get into too much detail, but we had a bunch of medical things come up including multiple miscarriages and related complications, death in the family, and my husband lost his job which took more than half a year to replace. I filled out the forms and noted that I had corrected several issues through payment plans and trial modification on our mortgage. I also noted I had a few outstanding items due to me having trouble locating who owned debts/not getting responses from companies when I’d reached out.

I ended up getting an LOI asking me to provide documentation on items completed/being paid on, and noted that I failed to mention some items they highlighted. I looked and out of everything they highlighted, I missed two. One I just overlooked because it was small, and another I believe was added in between the time I pulled my report and when they pulled theirs.

I’m due to return the LOI and I’ve broken down each item by category, included a general explanation for what happened during that time period, and also have a section for the unresolved areas/ones they thought were unaddressed but I did list and seem to be disconnected because the names didn’t match 100%. I have attachments labeled for each one showing payment plans for each of these or receipts showing they’re paid off between when I submitted my application a few weeks ago and today (to clarify, I didn’t wait until the app came up - I’ve been paying on multiples of these but I was trying to knock them out instead of signing up everything all at once to slowly knock them out).

All of my other investigations were so straightforward that I’m nervous. I can absolutely understand why they’d want proof or have questions - I just feel really apprehensive because my last one was just a phone call and then I was done. Does it seem likely I’ve done enough to cover things or is the damage done and this is just a formality to deny it? I have no other issues, not even a traffic ticket.

Applying for a Secret clearence. my questions is I worked at my father business doing his office work for roughly 4 years , I never filed taxes for those years and he was paying me $300-500 cash every month because I was living at his house and he wouldn’t make me pay bills either.

He was in charge of the business and had a lady do his bookkeeper work at the end of the year when filing taxes time came along. I never received a W—2 or 1099 from him.

My income roughly doing the math added to $5,000-$6000 for those 4 years.

My IRS transcripts show no delinquencies within the past 5 years. No late , payments and no federal frauds, it also says Compliance.

I never owed anything state or federal taxes in those years.

How would something like this affect me ?? Any similar situations ??

anyone know if an open adjucation in DISS gums up a pending adjucation in SC?

seems to be my case, the diss adjucation has no notes, no dates, no case numbers, unk if it's a CV thing or something lingering from a recent IC xover. My fsp is going on 18m at this point and just looking for insight.

I have requested my diss adjucation to request what's needed or close it out via fso. I have no reportable incidents and lengthy (20+ years) clean security profile.

Hi guys,

I was recently granted Top Secret clearance. This was a DoD clearance upgrade; I’ve held a Secret clearance since 2022.

Early-June 2026: SF86 / fingerprints submitted

Late-June 2026: Investigator interview

Mid-August 2026: Final Top Secret granted

Red Flags: Some foreign contacts

I work for a DoD contractor.

Was planning on answering yes to the question "in the last seven years, have you been involved in the illegal purchase [...] of any drug".

While in college I partook in marijuana (already put this down in the usage section) while underage in a legal state. My friend's sister who was over 21 would buy marijuana legally from the dispensary and give it to my friend who then would casually let me use some at parties. He eventually got tired of me taking some of his stuff and asked me to Venmo him some money which I did. This was the illegal purchase of drugs right? Since I was paying a friend back for marijuana while underage?

Has anyone had their clearance recently crossed over? I just signed my offer for my new position. A year ago when I was searching I was told crossovers were taking roughly 3 months. Now I’m hearing they are shorter but just curious to know if there’s any consistent info out there. 2-4 weeks? Let me know.

I had an investigation and at the end the Interviewer brought up collections that I recognized as mine but the amount sounded insane. Like 10x what I would have thought. This came from debt from an account that was shutdown 12 years ago on Paypal and I can't find any trace to even determine where its at to resolve or investigate myself. Otherwise clean background nor criminal history no bankruptcies and this "debt" never hit my credit over my entire credit history. Not sure how to proceed.

can an ex felon work on base as a laborer and I have be to be cleared by child tier 1 background check

Hello, getting my clearance and after I already submitted my SF86. I remembered I knew someone that once told me about some gov fraud with immigration. I still talk to them once in a great while. Its Not something I ever wanted to dig into or put my nose in, but now, if I will be holding a clearance I understand that you're held to more of a higher level and I am wondering if this is something that I have to randomly report to someone? I am not sure what to do with the knowledge.

I am currently on a contingent offer for a position at CACI and was wondering if they do a pre screen drug test and random drug tests throughout the contract as I haven't been told up front yet. I would greatly appreciate some feedback.

Got the email today that interim was denied and can’t seem to figure out why exactly.

Is this common?

I have student debt, about $35k. And I’ve been out of work since last year August which has caused my credit to drop as I didn’t have money to pay for my student loans. My car is paid off. No huge concerning debt besides student debt.

I had a marijuana card in college. But haven’t smoked since then and did a drug test for my job which came back clean.

I couldn’t remember some of my managers from previous jobs so I called the company but they couldn’t disclose it for some. I made sure to put that in the form.