Some of our most popular content is our regular updates on security clearance processing times. The government regularly releases statistics for both Department of Defense applicants as well as those with the intelligence community. But just knowing the times isn’t enough. There are several areas of nuance that many security clearance applicants find themselves asking about.
1. Do clearance processing times include weekends?
Processing times figures are released including the initiation, investigation, and adjudication timelines. The time it takes at each of those stages is generally fairly consistent. Over the past several years, background investigation times have improved most dramatically. Adjudication timelines are a smaller piece of the pie, but also one that can sometimes fluctuation due to backlogs or other issues. The good news is that processing times have improved across all fronts over the past year, in particular, and with COVID issues that delayed some field work less likely, it should be easier to establish a more consistent – and hopefully continually improving – clearance processing timeline.
2. Why are my clearance processing times so much longer?
Whenever you see average clearance processing times you have to remember they are just that – averages. And DCSA and ODNI also have special tricks up their sleeves when they are posting times – those times are specifically the fastest 90% of applicants. That means the 10% slowest of applicants – you know who you are, the folks waiting years and not months for a final clearance determination – aren’t included in those reported averages.
ODNI is said to be digging in a bit more on those slower applications, and trying to find out what the major issues are among the slowest 10% of applicants. While we don’t yet have the data, we can speculate that foreign influence issues are likely a key cause of slower security clearance processing times. If you have relatives or significant time spent living overseas, it will take longer for the government to verify that data.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article indicated DCSA clearance processing times did not include weekends; this version has been updated to note that DCSA clearance processing figures to include weekends.
