Showing results for: certification

Overseas Cleared Contracts That Pay Over $200K: What the Package Really Contains

Kabul and Kuwait City both sit at 35 percent on the State Department's danger pay table dated 12 July 2026. One column across, they come apart: Kabul carries a 35 percent post hardship differential, Kuwait City 15. That column is the difference between a 70 percent uplift and a 5… more

Veterans’ Preference Does Not Apply to Contractor Jobs – Here Is What Does

The first six words of 5 U.S.C. 2108 decide the question. "For the purpose of this title" is how the section defining a preference eligible opens, and that title governs federal government employees. A Leidos requisition at Aberdeen sits outside it, and so does a Booz Allen slot … 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

FOCI and the SF-328: What Foreign Ownership Does to Your Ability to Hire Cleared Staff

One sentence on the Standard Form 328 tells a defense contractor where it stands: your entity's eligibility determination, "e.g., a facility security clearance," cannot be decided if you do not complete and update the form. Nine questions sit above that line in the February 2026 … more

‘Bound by Affection, Influence, or Obligation’: Decoding the Close-and-Continuing Test

The phrase "bonds of affection" does not appear in the SF-86's foreign contacts question. It sits on page 40, in the marital-status block, attached to a different test. Section 19, on page 60, asks about people with whom you are "bound by affection, influence, common interests, a… more