Timing your military transition to coincide with the remaining active period of your security clearance is paramount. Making a hasty or knee-jerk decision to separate or retire from the military without calculating the time it will take your personnel office to process your separation and the time it will take you to get hired on at your next position can be detrimental to your post-transition employment prospects. Ensuring those timeframes coincide with enough remianing time on your security clearance will make the difference between opportunity and regret.

Timing

Use timing to your advantage. The Periodic Reinvestigation of security clearances are required:

Every 5 years for a Top Secret (TS) clearance
Every 10 years for a Secret (S) clearance
Every 15 years for a Confidential clearance

If you are planning on retiring or separating from the military or civil service, time that departure around a recent reinvestigation. If you need to prolong your separation or retirement until your reinvestigation is complete, do it. It will be worth it in the end. Doing so will extend the amount of time you have to look for a job and most importantly, find the best fitting job for you. If you separate and your reinvestigation is 6 months out that forces you to 1) Look for a future employer willing to navigate the reinvestigation process, or 2) take a job within that short timeframe just so your clearance doesn’t go inactive. Set yourself up for success; a little forethought goes a very long way.

How Long Your Investigation Will Take

I’ve seen recent guidance that says an investigation can last anywhere from a couple of months up to a year. But, my personal experience counters that estimate. My first TS clearance 20 years ago, before 9/11, took about 14 months. My most recent TS clearance (completed in 2019) took 24 months before I had my first interview and then another 7 months until my TS/SCI clearance was complete. That’s 31 months in total–about 2.5 years from start to finish.

A re-investigation, renewing an active clearance, will require less time. But, with the backlog at the DoD investigator’s office, you should stay on top of your re-investigation, avoid falling into the interim clearance status and be proactive about ensuring your clearance remains active.

If there is an urgent “need to know” and you already have the subsequent level of clearance, you can be granted an interim clearance until your investigation and adjudication are complete.

Mind the Re-Investigation Markers

While traveling to Europe, if you use the subway system, there is a sign that states, “Mind the Gap.” Which basically means lookout for the gap between the platform and the subway car. Well in regards to your security clearance, you need to take heed and mind the re-investigation and continuous evaluation markers.

Once you have been granted a security clearance, you are not necessarily in the clear. You are under continuous evaluation, where your standard of conduct I being monitored. If you run into the law, even just for a speeding ticket, you will need to report that to your security manager. Self-reporting will avoid awkward conversations at the 5 or 10-year reinvestigation mark when it’s time to recertify your clearance.

Some examples of self-reporting include:

• Change in marital status
• Foreign travel
• Foreign contacts
• Compromise of information
• Financial problems
• Arrests
• Substance abuse counseling
• Outside activities

Perversions of the above categories can be considered Red Flags when self-identified, those close to you, or your work peers. It’s best to nip any of these issues in the bud sooner rather than later. Get help, report it, and get on with your life with your clearance. Avoid these and let them fester and become problems will almost guarantee you security clearance issues in the future.

Silver Lining

Your clearance, especially a TS or TS SCI, is worth more than gold. The cost of processing a security clearance is estimated between $3,000 and $15,000. Even if you were willing to fund that cost yourself, you likely wouldn’t have the opportunity. I constantly see veterans looking for jobs that require a clearance who think their expired clearance means something and it usually doesn’t. Once your clearance has lapsed more than a year, the DoD will have to start the process over as if you never had a clearance ot begin with. Making sure your clearance remains active for at least 1 full year after you separate and at least 18 months after you retire can and will make the difference between getting that next job and not.

In addition, your potential for a higher salary will be severely affected by the possession of an active clearance. You can negotiate an additional $10K-30K salary with a secret clearance and even more with an active TS clearance when compared to your uncleared counterparts/co-workers. There are some jobs that require a clearance just to apply. There are other civilian job postings that state, “Must be able to obtain a security clearance.” However, if that job is between you with a lapsed clearance and another applicant with a similar work history and they have an active clearance…guess who will probably get the job.

Be deliberate about timing your transition out of the military. Take into account all of the factors that will make you marketable. For those of you planning to transition out of the military and not planning to pursue a federal or civilian sector job opportunity and you have an active clearance, try to keep it active anyway. As I’ve said time and time again, life happens. Make sure your ducks are in a row.