Best to wait and get final determination. Your FRIEND may have been cleared and simply not hired for whatever reason. If the person is denied, start with Google and look for clearance appeals process. I am no way an expert on appeals, so best to hear from some of the experts on this board. Just don’t address the entry to me and I bet someone will chime in with the right knowledge and expertise.

Good luck

On one section it asks have you been arrested in the last 7 years?

Then if you said no it asks have you EVER been charged with a felony offense?

I want to know if would answer 7 years for a secret clearance and EVER for a Top Secret clearance?

I need some feedback here.

I forgot to ask on my last message but my friend was also told that his background was under administration review by OPM but was given no further information. He was wondering what that meant as well. Thanks.

Thanks, I appreciate your advice; these blogs are a good tool to get ideas, information, etc. I’ll speak with my friend and see what he wants to do. If he feels he was unfairly treated and wants to appeal the background, do you know who he would contact or would it be just OPM, once he reviews the report? Thanks again.

Sorry to hear of the trouble. If your friend feels slandered and feels as if he/she is being mistreated in any way, I would recommend legal representation after getting the background investigation. There is an appeal process, but wait until the report of investigation is read. Also, if your friend was involved in some form of misconduct in ref to the OPM contract, OPM does retain the right to stop that person from working on the contract again if it (OPM) feels there is cause. If your friend is truly serious about taking on the govt, he/she is best served by not going it alone. Also, if there are current financial concerns and past misconduct, the hiring agency may have used the info and decided not to proceed with the hiring. I wish I had more positive answers for you.

Thank you for the response but what appeals process and/or rights does my friend have to either have OPM’s decision overturned or at least have the information noted in a record? It seems really strange and odd that my friends background was not adjudicated favorably since I’ve seen far worse and clearly know those individuals received their clearances, no matter what level it was. My friend thinks that he may have a former employee with USIS that made negative information appear in his file that clearly wasn’t true and he’s in the process of the obtaining that information as well, that’s all he can think would be the reason. And even if the information was in the file and not to down-play the situation but that was over five years ago. My friend did nothing of a seriousness nature with USIS and can’t understand the situation. I have no answers for my friend; any further advice would be appreciated.

No contract inv agencies make clearance determinations. Your friend did the right thing by ordering the case to see it first hand.

No, my training was in the office (back in Annandale). It was crazy. And, yes, I feel the pain with the SPIN money-best was a few details down to Ft. Jackson to conduct SPINs on people in basic training. Captive audience. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Really miss those days.

Our SPIN class was initially scheduled for a week but they decided a day was sufficient. They flew in a guy to teach the PR class and THAT was a great class, although he had to field a whole bunch of questions about SPINS.

Police Record

On one section it says

In the Last 7 years How you been arrested?

Then on the next section it says

Have you EVER been arrested? I thought they changed it to 7 years.

I ‘m perplexed

Are the different sections for 2 different types of investigations or…?

If it was in a person’s dining room with big dogs all over me, then we were together. My computer did not work, so I was unable to even get into PIPS–had to look over someone’s shoulder. Funny how I had to read the manual for PIPS and PIPS-R to teach myself as well. Luckily, I was able to figure out the report writing through a friend who had been in the business. Boy, I do miss the height of the SPIN era–loved the money.

Investigator, I think a week would have been nice and enough time.

Funny–that first interview was odd for me to. I was originally a SPIN Inv with a whopping 2 hours of OPM training under my belt–that’s right only 2 hours!!!!! I initially went in for the kill on what I thought were pretty serious issues. What was funny–is that the subj was completely cooperative and it threw me off my game for a minute–was not use to getting such cooperation so easily. From that point, I quickly changed my approach and now I’m a kinder-gentler Investigator

If I do get hired, I’m definitely going to swallow my pride and respect those of you who have been doing this job. I understand how much frustration that can save me and how much faster I can learn what’s important for me to focus on. Thanks again for the information on the new format. I hope that somehow it won’t be too much extra work for you.

One thing I noticed was that even though you all seemed to have trying moments with your investigations and the legislative changes, you still had that enthusiasm to do your best and that comes with being good at your job. I have a while to go before I start the process, but I will let you know how it turns out. If I end up working with investigators and hopefully supervisors like you, I will be very lucky!

I will tell you that my background as a military criminal inv helped tremendously with report writing. I found that to be quite easy when I started. Having a LE background is helpful in this job as you know how to ask and get answers–saves alot of time beating around the bush. Once you learn the procedures, you will do great. Also, one thing I’ve learned along the way is to swallow your pride and simply ask others who have been around a while if there is something you are unsure of. There are alot of inside tricks of the trade some know and some don’t. There are alot of ways to shorten things when you are armed with the correct info and many old timers can guide you there. Appreciate the kind words and I bet you will do great at this job–Best wishes and keep us posted.

I concur with Investigator. It is tough to get out of the law enforcement mentality when starting this type of work. You have to remember that these people aren’t suspects, they are people who are either gainfully employed or attempting to be gainfully employed who may or may not have some issues in their lives. Just keep that in mind when you are going through training and when you get out in the field. I’ll never forget my very first interview where I scared the you-know-what out of my subject (I didn’t quite understand the meaning of OPM “confrontational” interviews and did what I was used to). My trainer kindly explained to me that I didn’t need to be so mean. Lesson learned.

Re: the new form. Not looking forward to it. I anticapate a much longer subject interview followed by a huge increase in typing time. Unless the powers that be allow the information on the form to stand alone (it appears that many sections ask for lots of details-which I am assuming will need to be covered during the interview and re-reported when the report is typed). I hope I am making an incorrect assumption.