Aren’t moms sweet. One mother of a security clearance holder was worried that a foreign friend coming to visit over the holidays would put her son’s security clearance at risk:
I am the mother of a son that has a security clearance. He is visiting with his family from out of state and has concerns with my friend staying over during their visit. My friend is the son of a former Turkish ambassador to the U.S. He was born in Miami, FL while she was her on assignment. He has duel citizenship but lives in Istanbul. Is his presence here harmful to my son’s clearance?
Marko Hakamma, moderator on the ClearanceJobsBlog ensures, “There is nothing to be concerned about regarding your friend. Your son does not have ties or obligations to this person, and the fact that he is a U.S. citizen negates any would be concerns.”
REMINDER ON THE FOREIGN CONTACT LITMUS TEST
Clearance holders must report foreign contacts on a security clearance application or report new contacts to their facility security officer. Many applicants or newer security clearance holders overreport these individuals they come into contact with, but if you don’t know the individual, if it is a fleeting relationship, incidental, or at arms length, it probably doesn’t need to be reported unless your federal agency has told you otherwise.
Like Hakamma says, the fact that they are a U.S. citizen negates the concern, but when in doubt, your son could talk with their FSO about the situation.
Much about the clearance process resembles the Pirate’s Code: “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” This case-by-case system is meant to consider the whole person, increase process security, and allow the lowest-risk/highest-need candidates to complete the process. However, it also creates a lot of questions for applicants. For this reason, ClearanceJobs maintains ClearanceJobsBlog.com – a forum where clearance seekers can ask the cleared community for advice on their specific security concerns. Ask CJ explores questions posed on the ClearanceJobs Blog forum, emails received, and comments from this site.
