Security clearance guide for hiring managers and candidates

Every statement is drawn from an executive order, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register, or an agency's own page, and the sources are listed by the firm on request.

Recruiters Workforce is a private recruiting firm. It holds no facility clearance, it cannot sponsor or grant a clearance, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. What follows is general information for employers and candidates and is no substitute for the guidance of a facility security officer or the sponsoring agency.

Levels of access at a glance

Public Trust positions

Under 5 CFR Part 731, every covered federal position is designated at a high, moderate or low risk level, and positions at the high or moderate levels are normally designated Public Trust positions. A person appointed to one of them subject to investigation must undergo a background investigation, and the resulting suitability determination concerns character and conduct. The regulation states that this determination is distinct from a determination of eligibility for a sensitive national security position. In plain terms, a Public Trust position needs a favorable suitability or fitness decision rather than a security clearance.

The questionnaire is the SF-85P, the Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions, supporting a Tier 2 investigation for moderate risk and a Tier 4 investigation for high risk. On a requisition, Public Trust means the candidate does not need to hold a clearance today, but must be able to complete the agency's screening, which is why we ask candidates about prior federal investigations and anything that would slow adjudication. Contractors supporting civilian agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or the Federal Aviation Administration fill many of their positions at this level.

Confidential, Secret and Top Secret

Executive Order 13526 defines the three classification levels by the damage that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause: damage for Confidential, serious damage for Secret, and exceptionally grave damage for Top Secret. A personnel security clearance, in the words of the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual at 32 CFR Part 117, is an administrative determination that an individual is eligible, from a security point of view, for access to classified information at the level granted or lower. Access itself requires three things under the executive order: a favorable eligibility determination, a signed nondisclosure agreement, and a need to know.

Federal positions that involve classified access are designated by sensitivity under 5 CFR Part 1400: noncritical-sensitive positions have the potential to cause significant or serious damage to the national security, critical-sensitive positions the potential to cause exceptionally grave damage, and special-sensitive positions the potential to cause inestimable damage, including positions that require SCI access. The investigation tiers follow the same ladder: Tier 3 supports a Secret eligibility and Tier 5 supports Top Secret, with Tier 5 plus SCI eligibility supporting SCI access. Both use the SF-86, the Questionnaire for National Security Positions.

Sensitive Compartmented Information and where it is handled

SCI is a subset of classified national intelligence concerning or derived from intelligence sources, methods or analytical processes that must be protected within formal access control systems established by the Director of National Intelligence. Eligibility for SCI access is governed by Intelligence Community Directive 704, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence lists ICD 705 as the directive on Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, the accredited spaces in which SCI is handled.

This is why a requisition that reads TS/SCI is nearly always an on-site requisition. The executive order provides that classified information may not be removed from official premises without proper authorization, and 32 CFR Part 2001 requires classified information to be stored only under conditions designed to deter and detect unauthorized access, with Top Secret material held in a GSA-approved container, a vault built to Federal Standard 832, or an approved open storage area. Remote or hybrid arrangements on a cleared program apply to the unclassified part of the work, and the requisition should state how much of the work that is.

Counterintelligence and full-scope polygraphs

A counterintelligence-scope polygraph uses questions calculated to obtain counterintelligence information. The Department of Energy's rule at 10 CFR Part 709 limits the topics of its counterintelligence examination to involvement in espionage, sabotage, terrorism, unauthorized disclosure of classified information, unauthorized foreign contacts, and deliberate damage to or malicious misuse of a government information or defense system. Requisitions also use the term full-scope polygraph for an examination that goes beyond those topics; which examination applies is set by the sponsoring agency, and its own hiring page is the authority.

The agencies' own pages show how common the requirement is. The Central Intelligence Agency states that polygraph interviews are mandatory, with no exceptions. The National Reconnaissance Office requires a counterintelligence polygraph examination for all positions. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency requires the ability to obtain a TS/SCI clearance and states that successful completion of a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination is a condition of employment for all positions. The Defense Intelligence Agency requires a TS/SCI clearance, a counterintelligence-scope polygraph and a drug test. The National Security Agency's suitability process includes in-person security processing with a polygraph and, in some cases, a security interview of one to two days. Contractor employees supporting those agencies are commonly held to the same requirement, which is why a requisition for Fort Meade or Chantilly will name the polygraph in the first line.

Who can sponsor a clearance

Under the NISPOM, the cognizant security agency determines a contractor employee's eligibility, and a contractor may request an eligibility determination only for its own employees or consultants. The regulation adds that requests may not be used to establish a cache of cleared employees, so a company cannot clear people ahead of a contractual need. The company itself must first hold a facility clearance, which the regulation calls an entity eligibility determination. A contractor cannot apply for its own facility clearance; a government contracting activity or a currently cleared contractor sponsors it, at any point in the contracting life cycle where classified access is needed, and employees are not granted access until both the facility clearance and their own personnel eligibility have been granted.

The consequences for recruiting are direct. A candidate cannot apply for a clearance on their own, and a recruiting firm cannot obtain one for them. The sponsor is the employer that holds the facility clearance and the contract, or the federal agency itself. Where a program will accept a candidate who is eligible but not yet cleared, the cognizant security agency may grant temporary eligibility, previously called interim eligibility, for Top Secret, Secret or Confidential access while the investigation is pending. Temporary eligibility is granted only where there is no adverse information that calls eligibility into question, normally may not exceed one year, can be withdrawn while processing continues, and is not available to non-United States citizens. The requisition should say whether the program accepts a temporary eligibility, because that decides how wide the candidate pool can be.

The SF-86, eApp and the role of DCSA

The Office of Personnel Management's standard forms include the SF-85 for non-sensitive positions, the SF-85P for Public Trust positions and the SF-86 for national security positions. The SF-86 is now completed in eApp, the electronic application within the National Background Investigation Services system, which the government describes as the primary system used to collect SF-86 information. Candidates receive their eApp invitation from the sponsoring organization's security office after the sponsor initiates the request, which is another reason sponsorship comes first.

Executive Order 13869 renamed the Defense Security Service as the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency and made DCSA the primary federal entity for conducting background investigations for the federal government. DCSA conducts background investigations, personnel security, suitability, fitness and credentialing processes, adjudications and continuous vetting activities on behalf of federal agencies, and the Office of Personnel Management has transferred the background investigation mission and its records to DCSA. The Intelligence Community's careers site states that its clearance process takes, on average, nine to twelve months, and that already holding a clearance may not speed it up. For an employer, that number is the strongest argument for writing a requisition around candidates who already hold the required eligibility.

Continuous vetting under Trusted Workforce 2.0

Trusted Workforce 2.0 was launched in May 2018 by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the Director of National Intelligence to reform personnel vetting across the executive branch. Its central change is the move from periodic reinvestigations to continuous vetting, which the Office of Personnel Management's 2026 rule defines as reviewing the background of a covered individual at any time to determine whether that individual continues to meet applicable requirements. The same rule states that more than four million people serving in national security sensitive positions have been enrolled. The checks scale with the risk of the position, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's Continuous Evaluation System performs automated checks of security-relevant information within the framework.

For cleared contractor employees, the NISPOM requires that they follow the cognizant security agency's guidance on reinvestigation and continuous vetting, and it applies Security Executive Agent Directive 3, the reporting requirements for covered individuals, to contractors and their cleared employees; unofficial foreign travel and close and continuing contact with non-United States persons are among the matters that must be reported. Adjudication follows Security Executive Agent Directive 4, the National Security Adjudicative Guidelines, effective June 8, 2017, whose thirteen guidelines run from Allegiance to the United States and Foreign Influence through Financial Considerations, Drug Involvement and Substance Misuse, Criminal Conduct and Handling Protected Information to Use of Information Technology. Security Executive Agent Directive 7 governs reciprocity of background investigations and adjudications, and the NISPOM directs contractors to avoid submitting a new eligibility request for a person who is known to be cleared or in process elsewhere.

Reinstatement after a break

The NISPOM addresses two situations. Where a contractor ends an employee's access only because it is no longer needed and the employee stays continuously employed, the contractor may later provide access again without further investigation, on the cognizant security agency's guidance, as long as the employee remains eligible and has a current investigation of a scope that meets or exceeds the one required. After a break in employment, access may likewise be restored on the agency's guidance provided the person remains eligible and has a current, in-scope investigation. The cognizant security agency's guidance sets how long after the break an eligibility can still be used, and the sponsoring employer's security office confirms the position in the government system of record before an offer depends on it.

For a candidate, the practical advice is to record the month access ended, the date of the last investigation, and whether continuous vetting enrollment was in place, and to give those three facts to any recruiter or employer. For a hiring manager, a submittal that reports them lets the security office answer the reinstatement question in a day rather than after an offer has been extended.

Terms that appear on cleared requisitions

Eligibility and access

Eligibility is the government's determination that a person may be granted access at a level; access is the ability and opportunity to gain knowledge of classified information, granted by a sponsor with a need. A candidate can hold an eligibility without current access.

Active, current and in scope

A requisition that asks for an active clearance wants a candidate with current access. A current eligibility with an in-scope investigation, or enrollment in continuous vetting, is what the security office looks for when deciding whether access can be restored without a new investigation.

Temporary or interim eligibility

Eligibility granted by the cognizant security agency while the investigation is pending, only where there is no adverse information, normally for no more than one year, and withdrawable without appeal while processing continues.

SCIF

A Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, accredited under Intelligence Community Directive 705, in which SCI is handled. Work inside a SCIF is on-site work.

Citizenship

The NISPOM requires contractors to make every effort to ensure that non-United States citizens are not employed in duties that may require access to classified information. A Limited Access Authorization to Confidential or Secret information can be granted to a non-citizen only in rare circumstances involving urgently needed unique skills, and never covers Top Secret, intelligence, COMSEC, NATO or third-country information. The Central Intelligence Agency requires United States citizenship and accepts dual citizens.

DOE Q and L access

Access authorizations granted by the Department of Energy for its own programs and laboratories, including the national laboratories. A Department of Energy counterintelligence polygraph is governed by 10 CFR Part 709. Sandia National Laboratories warns applicants that illegal use of a controlled substance, including marijuana where state law allows it, may affect the ability to obtain or keep a Department of Energy security clearance.

Questions about clearances in recruiting

Can Recruiters Workforce verify a candidate's clearance before submittal?

It cannot. Verification of eligibility takes place in the government system of record and is performed by the sponsoring employer's security office or the agency. At screening the firm records what the candidate reports: the eligibility level, the date of the last investigation or enrollment in continuous vetting, the sponsoring organization, and any polygraph with its date. Those details go into the written submittal so that the security office can confirm them quickly.

Does a Public Trust background investigation help a candidate move into a cleared role?

The help is indirect. A Public Trust suitability determination is distinct from a national security eligibility, so it does not by itself open a Secret or Top Secret position. A recently completed federal investigation with a favorable outcome does, however, remove some of the uncertainty a sponsor faces, and Security Executive Agent Directive 7 addresses reciprocity of background investigations across agencies. The sponsor decides.

How should an employer write the clearance line of a requisition?

State the eligibility level the position requires on day one, whether SCI access is required, which polygraph applies, whether the program will accept a temporary eligibility, and whether any of the work can be done outside a SCIF or a classified area. A requisition that reads Top Secret with SCI, counterintelligence polygraph, on site five days at Fort Meade, temporary eligibility accepted, can be sourced the same day; one that reads clearance required cannot.

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