In category: Security Clearance
What Investigators Actually Ask Your SF-86 References – and How to Prep Them
Section 16 of the SF-86 asks for three people who know you well. What the written-inquiry stage sends them is a two-page form, mailed from a post office box in Boyers, Pennsylvania, with nine numbered items on the back and a return envelope inside. The government estimates it tak… more
SF-86 Section 23: Disclosing Past Drug Use (and What Actually Happens If You Do Not)
Section 23 of the SF-86 is not one question with a seven-year window. It is seven questions, four of which turn on the word EVER, capitalised on the form. Most write-ups quote 23.1's seven-year line and stop.Key takeawaysSection 23 (SF-86, Rev. November 2016) holds seven question… more
SF-86 Section 21: Answering the Mental Health Questions Without Damaging Your Clearance
Key takeaways The SF-86 in use today is the November 2016 revision. Section 21 is five questions, and none asks whether you have seen a mental health professional. Question 21D names seven diagnoses. Depression, anxiety and PTSD are not among them. Over roughly 2012 through 202… more
Which Jobs Actually Require a Secret Clearance – and Which Ones Only Say They Do
On October 1, 2017, 1,198,684 people held eligibility for access to classified information and were in access to nothing at all. No document, no program, no compartment. They were 29.7 percent of the 4,030,625 individuals ODNI counted as eligible that year, and it is the most rec… more
What DCSA Actually Does: The Agency That Decides Whether Your New Hire Can Start
High-risk federal vetting cases closed in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 averaged 220 days start to finish. Twelve of those days were intake. Forty belonged to the adjudicator. The remaining 168, better than three-quarters of the total, were the background investigation itself… more