Showing results for: certification
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
What to Do When You Cannot Remember a Verifier for an Old Address on the SF-86
The SF-86 asks for a residence verifier only when an address falls inside the last 3 years. That one clause, tucked into Section 11, dissolves most of the worry behind this question. If the old address you cannot find a witness for is further back than that, the form tells you to… more
Sitting in LOJ? The Reactivation Steps a New Employer Must Take to Re-Sponsor You
A loss of jurisdiction is a records action, not a verdict on your trustworthiness. When a cleared employee leaves a defense contractor, that company drops its relationship to the person's record in the Defense Information System for Security (DISS), and the eligibility falls into… more
What Sponsoring a Clearance Actually Costs a Company
A Top Secret clearance starts with a Tier 5 background investigation, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency bills that investigation at $5,355 for a non-DoD agency in fiscal 2025. The number is public and precise. It is also close to useless as a hiring budget, … more