In the era of Uber and the ability to track everything from your pizza to your Amazon deliveries, many security clearance applicants wonder if they’ll be able to log in and track the status of their security clearance application once it has been submitted. While the demand for a better system for tracking your clearance has long been debated, for now the short answer is no – you can’t keep tabs on your SF-86 once you’ve pressed to submit in either eQIP, or eApp – the new security clearance application system beginning to get rolled out.
The process causes headaches for both applicants and security officers, who in many cases still don’t always have a great way to see where security clearances are at in the process from an initiated investigation to a fully adjudicated clearance.
The other issue comes in for applicants who wonder about how to correct or update information after their SF-86 has been submitted. Fortunately the new eApp system is much more intuitive when it comes to filling in data correctly, and will eliminate many of the common pitfalls applicants encountered when it came to submitting an SF-86 that wasn’t fully baked. The bad news is once you’ve submitted everything, you can’t readily log back in to correct issues. That makes it all the more important to ensure you’re being wise when it comes to getting everything correct. If you realize you made an error, or if you have new reportable information, the best next step is to reach out to your security officer to let them know about the update. If you have a personnel subject interview scheduled, you can also tell your background investigator at that time.
Better tracking throughout the security clearance process is definitely on the personnel security wish list. As the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) updates from the legacy IT system it inherited from OPM and rolls out the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS), there may be a time in the future where you could track your security clearance status and get a clearer picture of where you’re at in the process. Security clearance processing never may come in as fast and hot as a pizza delivery – but as the technology advances, clearer expectation setting of timelines and status may be possible.
