Quote :

"A secret is pretty easy to get. It's just paper work."

[NO]

3/6/2006 2:52:42 PM

Yeah, that statement is incorrect. When I went through my secret clearance back in 2002 it was far more intrusive than just paperwork.

3/6/2006 5:46:33 PM

I have an active security clearance now. I got it last year for my job. There was almost no paperwork. I had to sign one thing about non-disclosure and one thing about not going to foreign countries and blabbing. I am not sure, I didnt actually read it. A month or so later, they just gave me a card. It is about as secure as a chik-fil-a coupon.

A secret clearance is different. Only a couple of dudes at my company have one. It must be harder to get (I hope)

3/6/2006 7:24:24 PM

yeah, a secret clearance is much more involved than that.

i'm thinking you either have a confidential clearance or something, or they just ran a slightly more detailed than average background check on you.

3/6/2006 7:58:39 PM

Is the general secret mainly just the background checks, national agency check and stuff like that?

Has anyone had their references, employers, etc. contacted for a general secret clearance and what kind of stuff do they ask them.

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 11:15 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2006 11:14:39 PM

For secret, you just have to do paperwork -- a lot of it. They will do more. It's not like you have to get interviewed for it as you do with TS


I've been contacted about a friend's secret. They just ask you if that person has been living somewhere for a certain time, how well you know them, are they crazy, etc.


[Edited on March 7, 2006 at 12:41 AM. Reason : ssdf]

3/7/2006 12:38:22 AM

^ That is not how it was when I got my secret. I had a very extensive interview, at least an hour and a half grilling from a DSS agent.

3/7/2006 4:03:47 AM

keep in mind that there are different levels within each "big level" (secret, top secret, etc).

i got secret, and i had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, and they did a background investigation. i had to do an interview with an agent due to some stupid things i did when i was younger....but it wasnt a big deal. i just had to explain what happened. no one that i put on my list of contacts got called.

now i know some other people who got secret and everyone on their list of contacts got called. its not always the same everytime.

same goes for TS. there are tons of different levels in TS. some people i know who have TS didnt have to get a polygraph test. others did.

different levels, different situations, and different background warant different processes for clearance. there is no one single way to do it.

3/7/2006 7:59:36 AM

a friend of mine was in MAGTF Intel in the marines getting his Top Secret clearance, and some guy called me and asked me how i knew him and asked me how long ive known him, etc.

he said it wasnt a very difficult procedure, i guess its easier if you get it while in the military?

3/7/2006 4:33:51 PM

my stepdad has TS and got a polygraph test. they go pretty deep in your background. they asked why my mom had been late on a mortgage payment like 10 years earlier (it was the banks fault, she wasn't late and they waived the fee but the investigators still knew).

i'm currently waiting for my secret clearance to go through. it is a lot of paperwork (a whole lot more if you've ever gotten in trouble with the law, lived overseas, or have foreign relatives).

3/7/2006 6:28:31 PM

hell yeah, it's a pain in the ass - that EPSQ takes FOREVER to fill out.

3/7/2006 7:32:40 PM

why would someone pop up and say "I need to get a clearance"?

hmmmm

I keep an SF86 on file to save time

[Edited on March 7, 2006 at 10:35 PM. Reason : mi]

3/7/2006 10:34:02 PM

i wonder if they care if you got in trouble with the law before you were 16, or if that is still on the record?

3/7/2006 10:38:02 PM

^they do not

3/7/2006 11:31:41 PM

Quote :

"I have an active security clearance now. I got it last year for my job. There was almost no paperwork. I had to sign one thing about non-disclosure and one thing about not going to foreign countries and blabbing. I am not sure, I didnt actually read it. A month or so later, they just gave me a card. It is about as secure as a chik-fil-a coupon. A secret clearance is different. Only a couple of dudes at my company have one. It must be harder to get (I hope) "

what kinda clearance do you have? DOD? DOE? something else?

I got a DOD confidential clearance (it goes confidential, secret, top secret, then 2 others that I can't think of at the moment) and I had to fill out a shit load of paperwork. Everywhere I ever lived, all your previous employers, a couple references, and like 30 questions about various things.

[Edited on March 8, 2006 at 8:28 AM. Reason : ]

3/8/2006 8:27:44 AM

mootduff has a TS. there isnt much difference in paperwork between secret and top secret, but the investigations are more thorough. mootduff is getting a ts/sci eventually though and that is where it starts to be a bitch

[Edited on March 8, 2006 at 9:22 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 8, 2006 at 9:24 AM. Reason : .]

3/8/2006 9:22:10 AM

bttt

1/17/2007 2:19:58 PM

to reply to brianj320 in his locked thread

the reason you cant just up and get one is because all classified info access is based on two things:

having the required security clearance level

having the need to know the information

by not making them available as you are inquiring about, it helps stave off leaks or unwanted proliferation

that said, almost ALL the time, when a job says it requires you to have a certain level clearance, what it usually means is it requires you to be able to obtain that level of clearance should you be hired. of course some jobs they want you to have it or have previously had it so they know they're not wasting money, but with alot of them, they just want your good faith commitment that you are reasonably sure you can get the level of clearance required, otherwise they'll have just pissed away money and you'll be useless as an employee

it also depends on who invesitgates/issues your clearance...as to how capable you would be of getting it in terms of obtrusiveness and scope

[Edited on January 17, 2007 at 5:01 PM. Reason : .]

1/17/2007 5:01:30 PM

I still got my SECRET from my job in the Corps.

1/17/2007 5:19:57 PM

It took a very long time to get TS. I remember that they were damn thorough -- one thing that sticks out in my memory was that some of my family and friends told me that the interviewing agents asked for names of additional people that would know me.

One thing that kind of sucks -- I understand that if you leave the military to go into a clearance job before a certain period of time expires, your clearance either remains intact or doesn't take much to get restored. If you leave the military to go to college for 4 years, it starts over.

1/17/2007 7:58:28 PM

yes, but that period of time is veryvery short.

however, if you once had a clearance and it expired or was revoked due to lack of necessity and not because you did something bad, they're easy to get back. usually they'll just investigate back to when you last had the clearance just to make sure you didn't go nutso as soon as you lost it. if you're getting a higher clearance than you had before... good luck..

1/17/2007 8:50:54 PM

The agent who checked my background for my SECRET clearance actually went to my permanent home of record neighborhood and asked random folks walking around about me... Literally, one of the guys he pumped information from happened to be a drug dealer who knew my sisters since elementary school. Luckily, he had only good things to say about me.

Shit got real when it came to obtaining my clearance.

1/17/2007 11:02:28 PM

They also cross-check everything to make sure one person they talked to isn't just out to get you. You shoud know when you apply whether you'll be granted the clearance or not based on the questions you answer on the SF86.

1/18/2007 4:30:17 AM

it took about 1.6 years to get a TS after paperwork

1/18/2007 6:26:06 AM

Quote :

"You shoud know when you apply whether you'll be granted the clearance or not based on the questions you answer on the SF86."

Not really.

Different agencies are more forgiving than others about past blemishes. Also, they can be very fickle when it comes to "foreign influence", "foreign preference". A lot of times these cases will need to go to trial. Not every case is black or white as you describe, many people fall into a grey area. These people will receive a SOR which they will have to respond with mitigating circumstances and then might need to appear before a judge and even hire a lawyer to help you respond and get more time.

It gets even worse if you are required to get TS/SCI-Full Scope Lifestyle Poly. They will ask you A LOT MORE than what you respond to on the SF86. If they don't like your answers to these questions or they think you are being deceitful you will be denied.

Bottom line. There is a number of factors for which you might be denied even if you think you should get cleared based on your responses to SF86, and a number of people I know are surprised they got cleared. They had a shady past but were very honest and forthcoming in the sf86 and in interviews and they got cleared.

1/18/2007 7:37:30 AM

bttt

3/14/2008 12:26:04 PM

thanks badu, so anyone with recent experience done this and/or know what they cover? I'm not too worried and my sister who deals with getting them for her employees all the time said since I'm so young and it covers the past 10 years that there's not much history or depth into where I've gone/lived/worked so it wouldn't take long (as in > 6 months). No drugs, no criminal charges, maybe a little mischievous high school pranks and punishment, and a speeding ticket, thats about it.

Also, since no specific company will really prepay for it yet (still waiting on the specific job offers) if I submit my information online like i'm supposed to, will it 'hold' my information for a while until a particular company gives the go-ahead or is it only open when a company gives authorization?

[Edited on March 14, 2008 at 12:40 PM. Reason : words]

3/14/2008 12:40:31 PM

Quote :

"i had whatever they give you when you enlist"

yeah they don't give everyone a clearance just for joining the military. its not like your standard infantry private or mess hall cook needs any security clearance.

^ I don't really understand what you're asking. If you get a job that requires it, they will take care of it. Why are you trying to mess with it now before you have a job? Why fill out all the paperwork on your time?

3/14/2008 1:00:43 PM

Because I've had several companies tell me to get my forms prepared for the security clearance. A security clearance is a security clearance (in the same level), no matter what company. My info is the same for every one of them and so I can have a generic template, if you will. If I can upload that info to their database so that they can proceed whenever they want its less hassle than if I refill that form (~31 pages) every time a company needing a clearance is interested.

3/14/2008 1:11:34 PM

where is this generic place you fill out the paperwork (online i assume)? to my knowledge OPM does all the investigations, but someone has to set you up with an account to access their system. maybe you can fill out an SF-86 and just turn that in every time http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF86.pdf

http://www.opm.gov/extra/investigate/security-clearance.asp
http://www.opm.gov/extra/investigate/security.asp

3/14/2008 1:41:13 PM

Yeah its the SF-86 form. One of the things I can't figure out is why I have a 31 page version of it from one of the companies. And thats one of the things I was trying to figure out, where to apply or submit these online. I thought is was what I was supposed to do, sorta like the universal job vacancy/application manager site for government positions. After looking at them more closely two of companies instructions' overlap in where to go for the official form and where they want it submitted - to their own website. So I guess that answered that, there is no one site that keeps the data.

3/14/2008 3:05:32 PM

when i had mine (TS/SCI), for the TS part i did the paperwork through an online form, not by hand

soooo much better

3/14/2008 3:08:12 PM

filling out that paperwork was the biggest pain in the ass i've had to deal with in the last 5 years. that shit sucked

3/14/2008 3:39:02 PM

Quote :

"where to apply or submit these online"

like i said, its OPM, and they have to set you up with an account.

http://www.opm.gov/e-qip/

Quote :

"Please note: Applicants can only access the e-QIP system if they have been invited to do so by an appropriate official at their sponsoring agency. Individuals cannot pre-apply for a security clearance, nor update their security questionnaire unless granted access by an appropriate agency official."

3/14/2008 3:50:57 PM

Quote :

" It gets even worse if you are required to get TS/SCI-Full Scope Lifestyle Poly. They will ask you A LOT MORE than what you respond to on the SF86. If they don't like your answers to these questions or they think you are being deceitful you will be denied."

Yeah the questions are a tad intrusive. Don't bat an eye at them and you're golden.

3/14/2008 9:24:33 PM

^^ah I see, the OPM homepage's links aren't very helpful for me, plus I never would've known it was called e-qip.

3/15/2008 1:09:02 AM

should have my TS soon

would have it already, but they fucked away the paperwork after i submitted it

twice

3/15/2008 1:28:41 AM

usajobs.gov

go work for homeland security. you'll get security clearance.

and in raleigh

[Edited on March 15, 2008 at 10:40 AM. Reason : ]

3/15/2008 10:40:12 AM

no, they'll hire someone in the RDU area with a clearance for the job versus waiting for someone to check out

3/16/2008 1:06:20 AM

could always attempt a commission into the military. it's a required step for which the government will pay.

potential downside: clearance won't be valid by the time you get out

3/16/2008 5:56:51 PM