How to Fill Out and Submit Form SF-85: Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions

Form SF-85, the Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions, is the background-investigation form you complete when a federal agency or contractor hires you into a low-risk role. You do not start the process on your own. Your sponsoring agency’s security office creates a case in the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) system and emails you an invitation to log in to eApp, the electronic portal that replaced e-QIP on October 1, 2023.¹ From there, eApp walks you through each section, checks your entries for gaps, and packages the whole thing for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) to investigate. Learning how to fill out the SF-85 is mostly about preparing the paperwork you will need before you log in and understanding which sections carry the most risk if you get them wrong.

Which Form You Actually Need

The SF-85 is only for positions designated non-sensitive and low-risk under 5 CFR Part 731 — typically administrative, clerical, or general-labor roles where you will not handle classified material or control high-value systems.² Public trust positions use the SF-85P; classified-access positions use the SF-86.³ You do not pick the form. The hiring agency’s security office decides based on the position’s risk designation, and the invitation you receive will tell you which questionnaire to complete.

What to Gather Before You Log In

The SF-85 covers a rolling five-year window with no gaps allowed, so the hardest part is reconstructing an unbroken timeline of where you lived, worked, and went to school.⁴ Pull out your old leases, W-2s, pay stubs, and transcripts before you start. eApp times out, and retyping addresses from memory under pressure is where mistakes creep in.

Have this ready:

Social Security number and date of birth.
Every residence for the last five years, with exact move-in and move-out dates, type of residence (owned, rented, military housing), and full street address. For each address within the last three years, you also need someone who knew you there — not a spouse, cohabitant, or other relative — with their contact information.²
Every job for the last five years, including self-employment and unemployment, with your supervisor’s name, work address, and phone number. For unemployment and self-employment periods, name someone who can verify what you were doing.⁴
Any school attended in the last five years, plus any school where you received a degree or diploma even if that was longer ago. For schools attended in the last three years, list a classmate, instructor, or friend who knew you there.²
At least three ways to reach you, including at least one telephone number.⁴

Temporary housing counts. Dorms, seasonal rentals, and a friend’s couch for two months all need specific dates. Even innocent gaps trigger requests for more information and slow the case down.

Working Through eApp

To log in, you need a smartcard that supports PKI authentication — usually a Common Access Card (CAC) or Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card — and a compatible browser.⁵ If you have not been issued one, contact your agency’s HR or security office before your start date.

eApp presents each section of the SF-85 as its own module. It validates formatting as you go and flags date gaps in your residence and employment timelines so you can fix them before submitting. When every section is complete, the system generates an Authorization for Release of Information that lets investigators pull records from employers, schools, landlords, financial institutions, and law enforcement. The SF-85 instructions require you to sign the authorization in ink.² In practice you print the page, sign it, scan it, and upload the signed copy. After you certify and submit, eApp transmits the package to your sponsoring agency for review and on to DCSA.

Sections That Trip People Up

Police Record (Section 16)

Section 16 asks whether, in the last five years, you were arrested, charged, convicted, sentenced, issued a summons or citation to appear in court, or placed on probation or parole, and whether you are currently on trial or awaiting trial. You report these events even if the record was sealed, expunged, or the charge dismissed. The only exception is a federal drug conviction that a court has expunged under 21 U.S.C. 844 or 18 U.S.C. 3607.² Minor traffic tickets under $300 with no drugs or alcohol involved do not need to be listed. Everything else does, including offenses outside the United States.

Illegal Drug Use (Section 17)

The drug questions look back only one year. They ask whether you illegally used any drug or controlled substance, purchased or trafficked drugs, misused prescription medications, or were ordered or volunteered to seek drug counseling.² The form applies federal law regardless of what your state allows. Recreational marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law except for narrow categories of FDA-approved or state-licensed medical products reclassified to Schedule III in April 2026.⁶ If you used recreational marijuana in the past year, answer “yes” and give the details. Concealing it causes bigger problems than disclosing it.

Selective Service (Section 14)

If you were born male after December 31, 1959, Section 14 asks whether you registered with the Selective Service System.² Nearly all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants must register by age 18, and the window closes for good at 26. If you did not register and you are past 26, you cannot fix it now, but the form gives you a text box to explain. Veterans who missed registration can point to their DD Form 214 as evidence that any failure was not knowing and willful.⁷

Fingerprints

Fingerprints travel to DCSA separately from your eApp package. Your agency will schedule you at its own facility or send you to an approved vendor; agencies are strongly encouraged to submit prints electronically rather than mailing hard cards.⁸ Fees at local law enforcement offices and private vendors run roughly $12 to $100, though most agencies cover the cost for their own hires.

Timing matters. DCSA needs the prints before it will process the investigation, and if they do not arrive within 14 days of your eApp submission, the case is marked unacceptable and returned. Fingerprint results are also valid for only 120 days, so there is no advantage to getting printed months before your start date.⁸

What Happens After You Submit

Your completed SF-85 triggers what DCSA calls a Tier 1 investigation. Because non-sensitive positions carry the lowest risk level, the investigation relies mostly on automated database checks rather than in-person interviews. Your fingerprints run against FBI criminal-history databases, and investigators query other law enforcement and government records to verify what you reported.

Processing runs from a few weeks to several months depending on the complexity of your history and the agency’s workload. Straightforward records finish faster. Many moves across jurisdictions, criminal history, foreign contacts, or discrepancies between your answers and the databases will stretch things out. Some agencies grant a preliminary entry on duty, letting you start work on an initial check while the full investigation continues.⁹

When the investigation closes, your sponsoring agency makes a suitability or fitness determination under 5 CFR 731.202. Adjudicators weigh criminal conduct, dishonest conduct, workplace misconduct, false statements in the application process, unrehabilitated drug or alcohol abuse, violent conduct, and any statutory bar to employment.¹⁰ They look for patterns, not isolated old events. A DUI from four years ago that you disclosed honestly is treated very differently from one you tried to hide.

If You Get a Notice of Proposed Action

If the investigation surfaces something that could make you unsuitable, OPM or your agency sends a written notice of proposed action. The notice lists the specific charges, explains what evidence the decision rests on, and gives you the right to review the materials relied upon. You then have a written opportunity to respond within the time limit the notice states.¹¹

Use that window. It is your chance to add context, submit evidence of rehabilitation, or correct factual errors in the investigative report. If the final decision goes against you, you lose suitability for the position, and in more serious cases — particularly those involving intentional dishonesty — OPM can debar you from federal competitive-service employment for up to three calendar years.¹²

Why Honesty on the Form Matters

Lying on the SF-85 or omitting information to mislead investigators can be prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which carries up to five years in prison.¹³ Intentional false statements are also one of the suitability factors that only OPM, not the hiring agency, can adjudicate, and they almost always result in a finding of unsuitability and possible debarment.¹⁰ The form itself warns that failing to provide the requested information may adversely affect your eligibility.²

Investigators cross-check your answers against FBI records, employment databases, and credit histories, and they are practiced at finding discrepancies. A misdemeanor, a period of drug use, a stretch of unemployment where you were doing not much — disclose it. Honesty about a negative fact is almost always survivable. Getting caught concealing one is not.

1
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. DCSA Announces Full Transition to NBIS eApp for Background Investigation Initiation
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions, SF 85
3
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Investigation Forms
4
Savannah River Site. Information Needed to Complete SF-85
5
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. National Background Investigation Services
6
Michigan Labor and Employment Law Blog. Marijuana Federal Reclassification and Its Impact on Michigan Employers
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Selective Service System. Selective Service System
8
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Fingerprints
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Personnel Vetting
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eCFR. 5 CFR 731.202 – Criteria for Making Suitability and Fitness Determinations
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eCFR. 5 CFR 731.302 – Notice of Proposed Action
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eCFR. 5 CFR 731.204 – Debarment by OPM
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally