FBI Program Terms Acknowledgement Form: Drug Policy and Housing

The FBI Program Terms Acknowledgement Form is a one-page PDF you download from FBIJobs.gov, initial next to each policy statement, sign, date, and upload as a required attachment with your Honors Internship application before the cycle’s deadline. It is not a biographical questionnaire. There are no fields for a Social Security number or personal history — just a series of statements you’re confirming you understand, followed by a signature block.

You’ll find the current PDF on the Students and Graduates page at FBIJobs.gov. The application window is short, usually about three to four weeks. For the Summer 2027 cycle, applications opened February 9, 2026, and closed March 5, 2026. Check the Students and Graduates page for the next cycle’s dates.

²³

What You Are Initialing

Each statement on the form gets your initials in the space beside it. Skipping one can get your application flagged as incomplete. In plain terms, here is what you’re acknowledging:

Based on your answers on the SF-86 security questionnaire, the FBI may require medical records reviewed by its healthcare professionals, which could delay or end your candidacy.
The full-scope background investigation can take six months or longer, requires you to be physically present in the United States for parts of it, and foreign travel during the process will trigger additional checks.
You cannot begin the internship until the background investigation is complete and you’re cleared for hire.
You’ve read the FBI Employment Drug Policy, you comply with it, and you’ll pass a drug test.
If you fail the polygraph or background investigation because you hid drug use, criminal activity, or other violations, you’re disqualified from the current program and from all future FBI employment.
Failing the polygraph or background investigation will likely hurt your chances with other U.S. Intelligence Community agencies and federal agencies.
If your SF-86, interview, polygraph, and drug test aren’t completed by October of the application year, or if the investigative phase isn’t finished by the following March, your candidacy may be discontinued.
If you can’t appear at the FBI location at the scheduled time for your interview, you may be dropped from the process.
If your submitted documents are missing required information, you may be discontinued.
You cannot report to any FBI field office or division without first receiving a Final Offer Letter.
The FBI strongly suggests you not sign an apartment lease or housing agreement until you have a Final Offer Letter with an official report date, because there’s no guarantee the background investigation will finish in time.

Read each line before you initial. You are certifying, one statement at a time, that you accept the consequences described in it.

How to Complete and Submit It

Download the PDF from FBIJobs.gov. Read each statement, write your initials in the space next to it, then print your name, sign, and date the bottom of the page. Every statement needs your initials.

If you complete the form digitally, use a PDF reader that supports form fields or digital signatures. If you print it, sign in ink, then scan the completed form at a resolution high enough that your initials and signature are clearly legible. A blurry scan functions the same as an incomplete document.

The completed form is uploaded through FBIJobs.gov as a required attachment to your online application during the open window. There is no separate email submission to a field office recruiter. It travels with the rest of your application package, which also includes a resume (federal format is preferred), an unofficial transcript reflecting your current GPA and enrollment status, and, optionally but recommended, an Enrollment Verification Certificate. The FBI may request additional documents in some cases.

⁴³

Confirm each upload went through before the deadline. If a file is corrupted, you’ll usually find out too late to fix it.

Before you sign, be sure you meet the four baseline requirements the FBI screens against: U.S. citizenship, full-time enrollment at a U.S.-accredited college or university, a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 that you maintain throughout the process, and the ability to obtain a Top Secret security clearance.

What the Drug Policy Certification Covers

When you initial the drug policy line, you are certifying compliance with the FBI’s specific lookback periods. The current standards:

No marijuana or cannabis use, in any form or location, natural or synthetic, within one year before the date of your application. The FBI shortened this from three years in a recent policy update.
No use of any other illegal drug within ten years before the date of your application.
Prescription drug misuse within one year before application may disqualify you. Abuse of prescription or over-the-counter substances within three years may also disqualify you.
No anabolic steroid use without a prescription within ten years before application.
Current use of any illegal or misused substance is an automatic disqualification.

The form is explicit that hiding drug use is worse than the drug use itself. If the polygraph catches an omission, you’re barred from the current program and from all future FBI employment. Beyond the FBI’s internal consequences, making false statements to a federal agency is a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, punishable by a fine or up to five years in prison.

⁵⁶

What Signing Commits You To

Several of the statements point forward to steps that begin after a conditional offer. The form is your advance consent to those steps. If you’re offered a conditional slot, the FBI opens a background investigation for a Top Secret security clearance. You’ll receive an invitation to complete the SF-86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) electronically, and you’ll be scheduled for:

A Personnel Security Interview covering your personal history, foreign contacts, and any areas of concern from your SF-86.
A pre-employment polygraph examination, which the FBI uses to verify what you’ve provided.
A urinalysis drug test.
Fingerprinting, with prints run through FBI databases.

Investigators will also contact current and former employers, references, neighbors, and social acquaintances, and review school records, credit history, arrest records, medical records, and any military records. The investigation typically takes six months or longer. Foreign travel history and international contacts tend to extend it. The framework comes from Executive Order 12968, which established the federal personnel security program for positions requiring access to classified information.

⁷⁸

The Housing Warning Deserves Its Own Paragraph

One statement on the form has real financial consequences if you ignore it. The FBI advises you not to sign a lease or housing agreement until you have a Final Offer Letter with an official report date. The background investigation timeline is unpredictable, and the FBI is direct that any lease signed before that letter arrives is your financial risk. Housing recommendations are available for assignments in the National Capital Region, but the Bureau does not pay for housing or travel. Wait for the letter.

⁷

1
FBIJOBS. FBI Honors Internship Program Terms Acknowledgement Form
2
Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Honors Internship Program Open for Applications for Summer 2027
3
FBIJOBS. Students and Graduates
4
University of Pennsylvania Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. FBI Honors Internship Program
5
FBI Jobs. Employment Eligibility
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
7
FBIJobs.gov. Honors Internship Program Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
8
GovInfo. Executive Order 12968 – Access to Classified Information