Obtaining An Interim Security Clearance!! (HELP!)

Factual Questions
1

I was recently offered a position with a private company that produces a product for the US Navy. The position requires that I obtain and maintain a DOD interim security clearance (and then a secret Security clearance). Given the following these potential negative factors, what are my chance of getting an interim???

-I was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in late June of 2011. I went to court that August and received Probation Before Judgment. I was given 18 months of probation, 6 of which would be supervised if I completed all the Alcohol Education Programs, attended all required AA meetings, paid all fines, and met my probation officer on a monthly basis. I did all these things in a timely manner and I am currently on unsupervised probation until February of 2013. I have not had any run-ins with law enforcement since the DUI arrest. I drink very infrequently and no longer drink and drive. I drink socially and I’ll have a beer at home now and then.

-In January of 2006, I was given a ticket from NYC law enforcement for public urination. It’s a misdemeanor I believe. I tried my level best to find a bathroom but reached a point of desperation and had to relieve myself in what I thought was a discrete location. I paid that fine on time. I believe it was around 50 dollars.

-I’ve had two speeding tickets and some parking tickets since 2006. The most recent speeding ticket was in 2010.

-I had some Financial issues in college where two credit cards (sometime between 2006-2008) I owned went into collections. These were my first credit cards and I tried to pay them down with whatever little money I could muster up. I did eventually pay off these cards once I graduated from school and got a job. It’s been 3.2 years since any negative information has been report on my credit history.

-I have about $100,000 in student loans but I am current in paying all them and have never been late in paying my monthly installments. I pay these bills with money saved from my last employer and unemployment compensations.

-My girlfriend is not an U.S. citizen. She is Zimbabwean. I interact with her on a daily basis. She has spent most of her life in the U.S. She went to college and works here.

-I have been unemployed for roughly 10 months and I have been actively trying to get employed. I was laid off from my last job (Contracted position). I had two jobs while in college that I quit (about 5 years ago) because I couldn’t work and do school at the same time. I was never fired.

-I used marijuana in college but very infrequently. It’s been over four years since my last use.

I am just a normal everyday person that made a couple bad decisions in the past. Any advice or insight on my particular issue would be Greatly Appreciated! I thank in advance for answering my question.

2

I’ve held secret clearances in aerospace industry for 30 years or so, now retired, I’m going to guess that your odds are not too good. I initially had some questions raised because my sister in law was a British subject.

You may get the interim clearance, but I’d say the final wouldn’t be granted.

Hope I’m wrong.

3

The student loans should not be problem – that’s pretty common now, and you are current on your payments. And the credit card problems while in college – also pretty common for people of that age, and they are in the past.

I don’t know about the criminal charges, but they aren’t very serious ones.

The main concerns for a security clearance are:

  • emotional connections with someone that would lead to you passing on secret info. The foreign girlfriend might figure into this, though we have good relations with Zimbabwe.
  • financial problems that would lead to you selling secret info. The student loans might enter into this, but they haven’t really been a problem to you – you are making current payments. And they are recorded – if you suddenly paid them off, it would be apparent and they would ask questions about where you got the money.

Years ago, when I was applying for a security clearance to work for a Navy contractor, among the forms I had to fill out was one asking to “list every organization that you have belonged too since age 16.” But then a footnote: “political organizations are not included.” So I said to them ‘you mean I have to list Boy Scouts and my 4-H club, but if I was a member of the Communist Party I could leave that off?’ The response was “Don’t worry – if you were a member of the Communist Party, we’d already know about it.”

4

I am involved in such situations on a regular basis. Sadly, I would say your chances of an interim are well less than 50/50. Not zero, but not good. On the bright side, your chances of eventually getting the clearance appear good. Doesn’t help much if your job depends on holding the interim…
The process of getting an interim is, as I understand it, simple. The day your application is submitted, you get an interim clearance. The agency has one week to confirm or deny the interim. (This sequence is important for reasons that aren’t important in your case) The agency runs your name/SS# through their databases. If nothing comes up, you maintain your interim. If something does, you don’t. From your description, something will pop up. The agency will then run a full investigation. They don’t do interviews for Secret, so it will all be papers in a room somewhere. This can take a couple of weeks to several months.
The worst of it is they won’t tell anyone anything. No reason given. It turns out they do have to give a reason if they deny a clearance. Guess what. It takes years for them to deny a clearance. It remains “under review” and they don’t talk. Given the nature of their job it is a good thing they aren’t chatty, but one would like the opportunity to help. Never happens though. You just wait. Very frustrating.

(can you tell I have suffered through this process many times for employees? It is the worst part of hiring for a secure position. Because there is no way to guess until the form is submitted).

Good luck.

5

From what I know, your chances of getting an* interim* are not very good. My understanding is that interims are given to people with obviously perfect or very good backgrounds and that interims are “given out” by low-level paper-pushers who don’t have the authority to adjudicate the seriousness of derogatory information, so they look and say, “ZOMG criminal!!111!!one” and immediately deny the interim and shunt the form, where it languishes for a few geologic eons until someone with authority finally looks at it and is able to mark it as “cmon, it’s no big deal guys, give the guy the clearance for crissakes”. Of course, by that time, the job offer has been revoked because they don’t want to wait that long for you to get a clearance. I seem to recall that some employers may terminate the investigation if you don’t get the interim (meaning that you just can’t sit on your buns while the investigation rolls forward, cuz it doesn’t go forward).

6

Thank you all for answering my question.

From all of your replies, it seems my chances are slim. As a result, Im going to make the best of the chances I do have.

What is the best way for me to mitigate my DUI charge or any other disqualifying information? What can I write so that the investigator will not take the charge so serious? (if possible)

7

Do not try to bullshit your way through it. The actually do follow up on these things, and if they find you omitted anything or lied about it, you’re done, no appeal. Be straight-forward and take your chances and if you were guilty, admit the error and be contrite. You may squeak through, but I’m afraid I’m not too hopeful, either. I held clearances for twelve years and am very familiar with the process, although some people whose background I knew to be iffy made it through the screening.

8

Out of curiosity what’s the real killer here? The DWI or the African girlfriend or the peeing in public? How would they ever find out about his girlfriend if he didn’t tell them?

9

peeing in public is frequently listed as a sex crime. if it is, there is no chance of a clearance.

I’ve held various clearances since 1973, I’ve seen people with less than you listed denied final clearance.

10

been doing this for over 30 yrs. Ouch. it has been a long time.
seconded.
thirded.
DISCO are not morals police. Their goal is to determine a) do you tell the truth, and b) are you subject to compromise? If there is a skeleton in your past but everyone knows about it, it is less of an issue. But the key is-make sure the investigator feels confident that you are telling him the whole truth. It is better to mention too much than too little. Everyone knows “Google is your friend”, even for the federal investigator at OMB. If they learn about your girlfriend through the internet that can’t be good. It is of course better to let sleeping dogs remain so. But that has to be balanced by the knowledge that there is no privacy any more. The investigator has access to lots of information. What he/she is trying to do is determine a). Keep that in mind.

11

The question is, are you a liability: yes. Your past performance, in a civil sense, has not very good so I will confirm with the others. However, I have known people who also have had DUI’s, rampant drug use, and have still received their clearance.

The most important part here is to be 100% honest. I put everything down regardless of what they say. Everything. I have a folder on my computer with anything scanned in that might impact my clearance and put it all down.

Student loans are not an issue as stated before, everyone has them. But, late payments on credit cards, loans, etc, will be a problem if you have any.

Typically, tickets under $300 are not a problem unless they are drug/alcohol related but the peeing in public is an exception but I don’t think it will take you out. But, the DUI and peeing in public is not working in your favor. These two will be the killer.

The g/f won’t be an issue as I doubt you’ll have access to intelligence and as long as it is disclosed you’ll be OK.

Marijuana use in college should also be disclosed, frequency I can’t comment on as drugs were never my thing.

Ultimately, as I said before, disclose everything for the past seven years. That’s how far back they go for a Secret. If anything pops up that you did not disclose that is far worse than a DUI as that will indicate that you are trying to hide something. They see it like this: if you hide nothing from them then that means no one can use that against you to compromise the project. If you have a DUI hidden somewhere, then someone could potentially blackmail you with that.

12

A guy I know was (I assume) being investigated for security clearance. My name must have come up along the way, I doubt very much he used me as a reference.

Two Men In Suits came-a-calling wanting to discuss the guy. I declined to participate. They told me I wasn’t doing the guy any favors. I explained that I wasn’t looking to.

This was 5 or so years ago, so maybe face to face interviews are no longer done.

13

Thank You all for your replies (As depressing and discouraging as most of them are). Ill be getting the SF 86 Form in the mail soon and Im going to be using every bit of the “Continuation Space” section to mitigate all the negative information.

Any further advice and insight on my particular issue would still be greatly appreciated.

Again, Thank you all.

14

Secret isn’t that hard to get. A Top Secret SCI would be a lot harder. They have loosened up on some of their financial limitations. If you are honest with them about your finances I don’t see much of a problem. In fact I don’t see any automatic disqualifications. The DUI and the foreign girlfriend might be the sticking points.

The most important thing is to be completely honest. Both on the SF86 and if you have an interview. I did not have an interview for secret only TS. If you leave something out or lie I doubt they would look twice at you.

15

Is it possible to write too much in the “Continuation Space” provided on the SF 86 form? Im planning on attaching addition sheets because i will likely room out of space on the form.

Also, should i write a recap of my DUI arrest in addition to expressing remorse and being contrite about the whole incident?

Thank you

16

Don’t waste any of your time and any space on the form expressing remorse and being contrite. The people reading your application for a security clearance aren’t judges. They aren’t concerned with your present emotional state. Just explain completely and accurately everything that you’ve done and that has happened to you regarding anything relevant to the clearance.

17

I have heard that due to the economic debacle if the only hinderence to clearence is a bankruptcy, they ignore it and you can get clearence realtively easily. Any truth to that?

18

One more thing: If you do end up being cleared, make sure you do nothing in the future to jeopardize your clearance. A security clearance is like gold when applying for a multitude of government jobs. Even though it lapses after you leave the job, it makes it easier for security people to approve a new clearance in the future, as the basic work has been done already. It also inclines the hiring agency to take a chance on you.

19

Just the facts. They don’t care about contrite or remorse. It just slows them down. Recap the arrest to the extent that it is in the official record. Don’t say anything that approaches an opinion or an alternate view. Again they are not judging you. They want to know whether they can trust you to tell them all significant events. You are establishing trust, not clearing your name. A brief mention of a small thing is more important than details of ‘major’ things.

20

I’ve had a DoD Secret Clearance for about 5 years now.

A year before I got my clearance I was arrested for DUI, and plead guilty to a slightly lesser charge. I was completely honest on the SF86, and had no problem getting the clearance. I know others who got full-blown DUIs before getting their clearance, and it was not a problem for them, either.

Public urination? I don’t think that will be an issue.

I really don’t think you will have a problem getting a clearance, though I agree the interim may not go through. The most important thing is to be *100% completely honest *on the SF86.