To get a DHS clearance, you first need a job offer or contract with the Department of Homeland Security or a DHS contractor for a position that requires one. There is no way to apply for a clearance on your own. Once you are sponsored, the security office invites you into an electronic system to complete a background questionnaire, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) runs an investigation scaled to the sensitivity of the position, and an adjudicator decides whether you are eligible. Depending on the level, that timeline can run from a few months to more than a year.
Sponsorship Comes First
The clearance follows the job, not the other way around. A sponsoring agency or employer initiates the process on your behalf after you have been selected for a position that requires access to sensitive information or classified material. The sponsor also pays for the background investigation.1Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Billing Rates and Resources
DHS positions split into two broad tracks. Public trust positions get a suitability or fitness determination, which measures your character and reliability for handling sensitive but unclassified work. National security positions get a clearance at the Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret level, and some also require access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), which adds another layer of vetting on top of Top Secret. Which track you fall into determines everything that follows, including which form you fill out.
Which Questionnaire You Will Complete
Your sponsoring agency will tell you which of three forms applies to your position:
- SF-85 for non-sensitive, low-risk positions. It does not cover public trust or national security work.2U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions SF 85
- SF-85P for public trust positions at moderate and high risk. More detailed than the SF-85, but explicitly not for national security roles.3U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Form 85P – Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions
- SF-86 for national security positions requiring access to classified information, at both non-critical sensitive and special/critical sensitive levels.4Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Case Types and Forms
You do not download and mail these forms. The security office sends you credentials to complete the questionnaire electronically.
What to Gather Before You Start
The SF-86 asks for ten years of history on residences, employment (including periods of unemployment), and education.5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Form 86 – Questionnaire for National Security Positions The SF-85P covers a similar span. Pulling the following records together in advance is the single biggest thing you can do to avoid delays:
- Every address for the past ten years, with approximate dates and someone who can verify each one.
- Every employer for the past ten years, with supervisor names and contact details. Employment gaps must be explained.
- Schools attended in the past ten years, plus any degrees earned before that.
- Financial records covering significant debts, bankruptcies, tax liens, delinquent accounts, and tax compliance issues. Financial trouble is one of the most common reasons clearances are denied.
- Foreign contacts, foreign travel, and any foreign financial interests or property.
- Every arrest, charge, and conviction, including expunged or dismissed cases. Investigators find sealed records; disclosing upfront beats having something surface later.
- Any illegal drug use or misuse of prescription drugs, with dates and circumstances.
- References from different periods of your life who can speak to your character.
Honest mistakes on dates are understandable. Deliberate omissions are disqualifying on their own, regardless of what you were hiding.
Submitting Through NBIS eApp
The government has moved from the older Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) system to a newer platform called eApp, run through the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS).6Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing – e-QIP Older guides that reference e-QIP are describing a system that has been replaced. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for example, now simply calls the step the “Security Questionnaire” submitted through NBIS.7CBP Careers. Security Questionnaire
The security office sends login credentials or an invitation link. You complete the questionnaire online, and the security office reviews it for completeness before forwarding it to DCSA for investigation. Keep any confirmation or tracking information the system gives you. Following up later is much easier with a reference number.
The Background Investigation
Investigation depth scales with the sensitivity of the position. A low-risk role gets basic database checks. A Top Secret investigation is far more intensive, with in-person interviews of your references, former employers, neighbors, and associates. Investigators will also interview you, sometimes walking through parts of your questionnaire line by line to clarify discrepancies or fill in gaps. The tone is not adversarial, but the review is thorough.
Financial checks, criminal history searches, and verification of employment and education run across multiple federal databases. For positions with foreign contacts or travel, investigators dig deeper and may pull in counterintelligence resources.
Polygraph Examinations
Several DHS components require a polygraph for law enforcement positions, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Protective Service, the Secret Service, and certain TSA law enforcement roles.8U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS Law Enforcement Eligibility Requirements A polygraph can also be required for any position with SCI access. Topics track what you already covered in the questionnaire, especially foreign contacts, criminal activity, and drug use.
Interim Eligibility
Full investigations take time, so DCSA routinely reviews applicants for interim eligibility, which lets you start classified work while the full investigation continues. Interim decisions are made when the investigation opens, based on the SF-86, a fingerprint check, proof of citizenship, and available local records.9Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Interim Clearances Interim eligibility only comes through when access appears clearly consistent with national security, and it can be withdrawn if derogatory information turns up during the full investigation.
How Adjudicators Decide
After the investigation closes, an adjudicator weighs everything against 13 national security guidelines set out in Security Executive Agent Directive 4: allegiance to the United States; foreign influence; foreign preference; personal conduct; financial considerations; alcohol consumption; drug involvement; criminal conduct; sexual behavior that could create vulnerability to coercion; psychological conditions that could impair judgment; handling of protected information; use of information technology; and outside activities that could create a conflict of interest. These guidelines apply across the federal government, not only at DHS.10Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Security Executive Agent Directive 4 – National Security Adjudicative Guidelines
No single guideline is automatically disqualifying. Adjudicators apply what SEAD 4 calls the “whole-person concept,” looking at how serious the concern is, how recent, whether you were young at the time, whether you have shown rehabilitation, and how likely recurrence is.10Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Security Executive Agent Directive 4 – National Security Adjudicative Guidelines A DUI from 15 years ago with no repeat incidents reads very differently from one last year.
If You Are Denied
Under Executive Order 12968, anyone denied or revoked for a national security clearance has specific rights. You must receive a written explanation of the reasons. You can request the documents and investigative reports the decision was based on. You can hire an attorney at your own expense, and you have a reasonable opportunity to respond in writing.11GovInfo. Executive Order 12968 – Access to Classified Information
If your written response does not resolve things, you can appeal to a panel of at least three members, two of whom must come from outside the security field. You also have the right to appear personally before an adjudicative authority at some point in the process.11GovInfo. Executive Order 12968 – Access to Classified Information The panel’s decision is generally final within the agency. If the denial is upheld, you typically must wait at least a year before the agency can request reconsideration.
The strongest appeal responses attach documented mitigation to each specific concern. Financial issue? Show that debts are resolved or on a payment plan. Foreign contacts? Provide context on the nature and frequency of the relationships. Vague reassurances carry almost no weight.
If You Already Hold a Clearance
Security Executive Agent Directive 7 requires agencies to accept existing background investigations and clearance adjudications from other federal agencies within five business days, so long as certain conditions are met. Reciprocity does not apply if your most recent investigation is more than seven years old, if new derogatory information has come up since the last adjudication, if the clearance was granted on an interim or temporary basis, or if your eligibility is currently suspended or revoked.12Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Security Executive Agent Directive 7 – Reciprocity of Background Investigations and National Security Adjudicative Determinations Suitability and fitness determinations for public trust positions are outside the scope of national security reciprocity, so a valid Secret or Top Secret clearance does not automatically cover you for a public trust role.
Keeping Your Clearance
Under the Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative, the old model of periodic reinvestigations every five or ten years has been replaced by continuous vetting. Automated systems regularly check criminal, financial, terrorism, and public records databases for anything that might affect your eligibility.13Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Continuous Vetting When something is flagged, DCSA decides whether to work with you to resolve it or move toward suspension or revocation. The FBI’s Rap Back system, which retains your fingerprints and sends real-time alerts for arrests anywhere in the country, feeds into this monitoring.14Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. DCSA Expands Rap Back Enrollment to Wider Industry Population
You also have an affirmative duty to self-report certain events to your security officer: arrests or criminal charges, significant financial problems, new foreign contacts or foreign travel, changes in marital status, and any contact by a foreign intelligence service.15Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Report a Security Change, Concern, or Threat Failing to self-report is itself a security concern, even when the underlying event would not have been disqualifying. When in doubt, report it.