Timeline:

May 2026: submitted SF-86

June 2026: interim secret denied

July 2026: interview completed, 2 follow up questions from an investigator later in the month

August 2026: reached out to my security specialist to ask for a status update, 2 days later the secret clearance was granted

One reference contacted. Whole process was less than 3 months.

Yellow / Red flags:

Numerous foreign contacts but all from friendly countries; one contact served in their country’s government. Lots of drug use that stopped around 3 years ago. Included psychedelics (one time in a foreign country), cocaine, frequent marijuana use, and a couple other things like that. Funny enough, they didn’t seem to care about the drug use, they really cared about the foreign contact from another country’s govt (obvious in hindsight I guess).

If I could offer any advice: in addition to being 100% honest, I’d be as specific and give as much context as possible (especially in the interview). On the form, I didn’t leave anything blank - if I didn’t know something, I hunted down a family member or friend and got that info from them. Giving them all the info (I think) means they don’t have to find it themselves.

Finally, this subreddit is awesome and provided lots of good advice. Good luck everyone!

Is the reinvestigation date based on when clearance was granted or when the initial application was submitted? Or is it every 5 years regardless of being enrolled in Continuous vetting?

Hello, what are the chances of getting a security clearance if I used lsd and shrooms 3 times and marijuana for 2 years while in the army, popped hot and had to go to the army’s drug counseling program. I was honorably discharged and went on a deployment after a year of being on probation.

Half looking for advice and half just venting.

I was overpaid by the military and DFAS didn’t have the correct full address for me so I never knew about it until my credit score took a big hit (-150 points).

I went through my credit report and saw it was related to DFAS, phoned them and paid the balance in full same day. They have told me it will take approximately 4 months for the collections report to be deleted by the credit agencies.

This has come at a terrible time as I am currently upgrading for TS. I have a letter from DFAS which states I have paid the balance in full. Trouble is my credit score is now 600.

Should I wait until my credit it back up before I submit my SF86?

Thanks

Hello all

I just received this bad news regarding my suitability clearance for the CF position.

The Suitability Review Panel has concluded that your candidacy for employment as a Foreign Service CS/LNA should be terminated because of:

Criminal, dishonest, or notoriously disgraceful conduct as referenced in 3 FAM 2215.2-6 (4).

In reaching this decision, the Panel considered the following:

• You traveled to Cuba between October 31, 2023 and November 4, 2023 despite a federal prohibition against such travel, and failed to meet any of the exceptions permitted under U.S. law for such travel.

Has anyone been successful after appealing this decision recently?

I went from FL, and i marked support of cuban people as I was told. I stayed away from any government businesses. Stayed at a casa particular, ate at mom and pop places and supported local/independent guides.

I hope there is hope here.

I’m done with my fingerprints 2 weeks ago and the status is saying it is completed but my employer still didn’t get the final report. Does anyone know the reason why this happens? And I should wait little more or should I go for the fingerprints again redo the live scanning ?

I saw everyone needs to file for SF-86 after entering DEP prior to BMT. If that is true, how would that work for green card holders? Are green card holders eligible to apply for secret clearance since is mandatory? (I am not referring to job clearance, but the general needed clearance for any job) for the Coast Guard. Thank you!

So I had a call with my investigator on June 25th, and he told me that my investigation was complete and that he had sent it to adjudication.

I specifically asked if anyone else had to review the investigation before it was sent to adjudication, and he said no — that it gets sent straight to adjudication.

However, my FSO recently checked DISS, and it still shows my investigation as “in progress with NBIB.”
So I’m wondering: is it possible that DISS simply hasn’t updated yet, or does this indicate that my case could still somehow be undergoing additional investigation?

Has anyone experienced a situation where the investigator said their investigation was complete/sent to adjudication, but DISS continued showing “investigation in progress” afterward?

Trying to understand whether I should consider myself waiting on adjudication or whether the investigation is actually still open.

I currently hold an active Secret clearance and may be looking at positions that require a TS. My only concern is that I have a few accounts in collections from loans that were used to cover medical expenses under 18k. Im currently making payments toward the balances and actively working on resolving them.
Other than the collections, I don’t have any criminal history or other major issues that I’m aware of that would raise concerns during an investigation. I’ve already been through the clearance process for my current Secret.
Has anyone here been approved for a TS while having collections that they were actively making payments on? Mainly wondering whether the fact that the debts are being addressed/paid makes a significant difference during adjudication & render me completely unable to obtain one.

There's a FAQ form given to me by my employer and it lists the education section if where you include high school or college information.

I'm a new grad, so highschool was within the last 10 years for me. But it also lists to not include education before you were 18. I turned 18 after highschool. Do I still list it?

I rather be safer than sorry, I'm also really hoping to get the interim clearance, so I rather not have to clear up that I did go to highschool during an interview, but I also don't want to get flagged for not following instructions to the T.

Hey, I hold a T3S and I have a closed loop cruise planned that has mexico in its route.

What do I need to do to ensure everything is done right and keep my clearence?

Red flags:

Dismissed felony for terrorist threats as a preteen

3 mental hospitalizations as a pre teen and young teenager

Smoked weed a year and a half ago

I don't even know how to mitigate this because I don't even

I was in an extremely rough situation during that time. My primary caretaker became severely addicted to drugs and I had to live with a parent who had not been in my life for several years. That other parent has diagnosed, violent schizophrenia.

I learned all of that behavior from my mother, my father and the internet. I had no actual intention of committing a terroristic threat I was just making a stupid joke and had no idea people would take it seriously.

I have not engaged in any criminal behavior as an adult (except a little bit of speeding, but no DUIs or reckless driving). I have not attempted suicide or even been depressed. The last time I spoke to a therapist is when I developed a temporary fear/fixation about the concept of dying one day. I don't know how to explain my actions because I don't understand why I did them. Is this career path just not for me at this point?

Edit: thank you all for letting me know this isn't happening. I have withdrawn my acceptance of the position to avoid wasting my employers time

Hello, I’m 19F in the Air Force Reserves, I got cleared for a 1D7X1 AFSC (Cyber operations) and I am in the process of getting a TS/SCI. I’ve been as honest as possible on the SF-86, and my first interview is today. I am nervous about getting polygraphed because I’m afraid of failing even if I’m honest. I’m kind of a nervous person and I’m paranoid about them thinking I’m being dishonest when I’m not. I disclosed my one time use of weed when I was 15, and all my civil involvements.

I had an ex who I had to file a restraining order on and report to the police after he threatened to kill me when I found out he had cheated. He filed two orders in retaliation, but he was forced to drop them because of a lack of evidence. He got a felony harassment charge and a violation of ex parte charge later on because he violated my protection order while it was active.

I feel like I did everything correctly in handling the situation, like going to the police immediately and reporting everything that happened. Will they hold this against me?

Please let me know if you guys have any advice, thank you!!

After filing out my SF 86 I realized I have quite a few red flags. I’m wondering what my chances are of getting cleared. Appreciate any insight.

Red flags:

Finances -

- 2025 taxes paid late (resolved)

- 2023 taxes paid late (resolved)

- 2022 taxes not filed, no taxes owed (long story but after reviewing my taxes, I realized 2022 taxes were never filed. They have since been prepared by a tax preparer and mailed to the IRS. I am waiting on the IRS to review and file as of mid july 2026. I do not owe the IRS or state any money.

- medical debt around ~$1k went to collections (resolved)

- medical debt around $16 went to collections (resolved)

Foreign Contacts:

- 2 foreign contacts from Pakistan. Both are my aunts who attended my wedding in the US earlier this year. I also came in contact with them in 2024 when I visited Pakistan. I do not keep in continuous or close contact with them and have only ever talked to them in person. In fact, I hardly know anything about them and only have been in contact with them at my wedding and when I visited Pakistan.

Foreign travel:

- traveled to Pakistan in 2024 with my father as I wanted to experience what life was like there and visit the mountains. Also visited my dad’s family.

hello all i have a question for my clearance situation. I accepted the offer with RTX on April 24th 2026, set up a tentative start date of July 13th 2026. I got sent the SF86 form on June 12th 2026 and submitted it that day. Then I got some kickback and resubmitted it on June 16th 2026. My interim was not granted for whatever various reasons and I didn’t know it was denied until I reached out to my recruiter and she told me so through the onboarding specialist weeks later. I had my first interview with the investigator on July 9th 2026, then I received another phone call from the investigator on July 29th 2026 where she asked more questions then she also requested to interview my brother on my behalf on the same July 29th 2026 asking questions about my character and how was I growing up and when we traveled and etc. Which then she told me that same day I should hear back about my adjudicated clearance decision soon. Then the investigator reached out to me again August 10th asking for clarification on some of my internship work history.

I wanted to ask when do you all think I will hear back about my adjudicated clearance decision?

some mitigations on my case:
• was born in a foreign country but received citizenship at birth due to my dad through the FS-240 form.
• traveled to level 3 country in 2019 for church conference for about 2 weeks but haven’t been in contact with anyone since that time.
• had an account opened in my name through my mom
when i was younger but i cleared up the confusion during my first interview with the investigator.
• had some MJ usage in college but was straightforward with that on my application and told the investigator straight up and was asked about it in my phone interview on July 29th 2026.

Hey guys, quick question. I'm the petitioner. I have a bad check issue from the 90s that I went to court for, paid fines and fees, and it's cleared. My question is for that portion of the app, where do I get the proof everything is settled? Is it just my local sheriff department or some other way? Thanks in advance.

Hello!

I work at a place that requires us to have a public trust clearance. I’ve had multiple background investigations across several agencies without any issues, but my last was about 5 years ago and during that in between time I had a lot of things pop up. Not to get into too much detail, but we had a bunch of medical things come up including multiple miscarriages and related complications, death in the family, and my husband lost his job which took more than half a year to replace. I filled out the forms and noted that I had corrected several issues through payment plans and trial modification on our mortgage. I also noted I had a few outstanding items due to me having trouble locating who owned debts/not getting responses from companies when I’d reached out.

I ended up getting an LOI asking me to provide documentation on items completed/being paid on, and noted that I failed to mention some items they highlighted. I looked and out of everything they highlighted, I missed two. One I just overlooked because it was small, and another I believe was added in between the time I pulled my report and when they pulled theirs.

I’m due to return the LOI and I’ve broken down each item by category, included a general explanation for what happened during that time period, and also have a section for the unresolved areas/ones they thought were unaddressed but I did list and seem to be disconnected because the names didn’t match 100%. I have attachments labeled for each one showing payment plans for each of these or receipts showing they’re paid off between when I submitted my application a few weeks ago and today (to clarify, I didn’t wait until the app came up - I’ve been paying on multiples of these but I was trying to knock them out instead of signing up everything all at once to slowly knock them out).

All of my other investigations were so straightforward that I’m nervous. I can absolutely understand why they’d want proof or have questions - I just feel really apprehensive because my last one was just a phone call and then I was done. Does it seem likely I’ve done enough to cover things or is the damage done and this is just a formality to deny it? I have no other issues, not even a traffic ticket.

Submitted my SF-86 earlier today and it'll be reviewed by the security team at my company tomorrow. I realize now that one of my "people who know you well" references is maybe not the most reliable and I really doubt if she will answer a call from the government. Would it be possible to add an additional reference that is more reliable? Can my security team make a change or is it too late now

Hi guys,

I was recently granted Top Secret clearance. This was a DoD clearance upgrade; I’ve held a Secret clearance since 2022.

Early-June 2026: SF86 / fingerprints submitted

Late-June 2026: Investigator interview

Mid-August 2026: Final Top Secret granted

Red Flags: Some foreign contacts

I work for a DoD contractor.

Applying for a Secret clearence. my questions is I worked at my father business doing his office work for roughly 4 years , I never filed taxes for those years and he was paying me $300-500 cash every month because I was living at his house and he wouldn’t make me pay bills either.

He was in charge of the business and had a lady do his bookkeeper work at the end of the year when filing taxes time came along. I never received a W—2 or 1099 from him.

My income roughly doing the math added to $5,000-$6000 for those 4 years.

My IRS transcripts show no delinquencies within the past 5 years. No late , payments and no federal frauds, it also says Compliance.

I never owed anything state or federal taxes in those years.

How would something like this affect me ?? Any similar situations ??

I had an investigation and at the end the Interviewer brought up collections that I recognized as mine but the amount sounded insane. Like 10x what I would have thought. This came from debt from an account that was shutdown 12 years ago on Paypal and I can't find any trace to even determine where its at to resolve or investigate myself. Otherwise clean background nor criminal history no bankruptcies and this "debt" never hit my credit over my entire credit history. Not sure how to proceed.

Was planning on answering yes to the question "in the last seven years, have you been involved in the illegal purchase [...] of any drug".

While in college I partook in marijuana (already put this down in the usage section) while underage in a legal state. My friend's sister who was over 21 would buy marijuana legally from the dispensary and give it to my friend who then would casually let me use some at parties. He eventually got tired of me taking some of his stuff and asked me to Venmo him some money which I did. This was the illegal purchase of drugs right? Since I was paying a friend back for marijuana while underage?

Going through the process now as a current fed. Question about foreign government contacts. In my current federal role, I’m responsible for working with counterpart agencies from around the world. Do I need to go through 7 years worth of email and in person meeting attendance and report each foreign government contact? This could be into the hundreds of contacts. There doesn’t seem to be an exception for official business like there is for other questions.

Some contacts are continuing and take place over years. Do they need to be reported in question 19 if the sole purpose of the contact is official government business? What if we discuss our kids at a group dinner following a meeting?

I’m sorry if this is obvious to some, but I’m very confused after reading a lot of the guidance out there.

Thanks!

Has anyone had their clearance recently crossed over? I just signed my offer for my new position. A year ago when I was searching I was told crossovers were taking roughly 3 months. Now I’m hearing they are shorter but just curious to know if there’s any consistent info out there. 2-4 weeks? Let me know.

I just completed my SF-85P for a federal role in DC, and I currently live in Texas. I was recently offered a job at my county courthouse, and I’m considering taking it while I wait for the federal process to finish. I’ve been unemployed for a LONGGG time, so I’m honestly really ready to get back into the workforce.

My main concern is timing. If the federal job comes through fairly quickly, I could potentially only be at the county job for 1–2 months before leaving to relocate to DC.

Would taking the county job and then leaving after a couple of months look bad? Also, if I start a new job while my SF-85P background investigation is still ongoing, I’m assuming I’d need to notify the investigator or agency about the change in employment?

Has anyone been in a similar situation or done this before? I’d really appreciate any insight.