- Federal law requires that all government employees working in national security positions hold security clearances. Job candidates receive an "SF 86" or the "Questionnaire for National Security Positions." The form asks the candidate for every place where he has lived, attended school and worked for the past seven to 10 years and references for every activity. A candidate must also report all foreign contacts, list three personal references, report all countries he has traveled to and answer a series of questions about his finances, family, drug use, criminal record, technology use, mental health, contacts and loyalty to the United States.
- The federal government uses three clearance levels: confidential, secret and top secret. Confidential and secret mostly clear administrative staff, low-level analysts and others who will have contact with potentially sensitive information and facilities. Top secret clearance goes to researchers, agents, diplomats and others who produce or have responsibility for sensitive information and facilities.
- Confidential and secret clearances take several weeks to a couple of months and involve extensive background checks on a candidate. Security personnel run names through databases and call former supervisors and maybe a few other references. Top secret clearances, on the other hand, can take six months to a year and involve interviews with the candidate's references and fielding extra references and contacts from those interviews.
- The Office of Personnel Management states that nothing can automatically disqualify a candidate except withholding or falsifying information. Security personnel try to look at a candidate's SF 86 holistically. Guidelines change with different federal departments, but most departments judge a candidate on competence, experience, judgment and loyalty to the United States.
SF 86
Clearances
Investigation
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