How to Activate an Inactive Top-Secret Security Clearance
The Department of Defense issues three levels of classified clearance: Confidential, Secret and Top Secret. Top Secret is the highest level and the most difficult to get and keep. In all cases, the clearance allows an employee to access documents and other materials that might compromise national security. As such, having a clearance makes the employee more valuable to the company and is usually reflected in the salary. An individual may not receive a classified clearance unless the qualified employer or government entity requests it. Individuals with this clearance have access to information or material that could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if it was released without authorization. This level needs to be reinvestigated every five years.
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Instructions
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Ask your employer to renew your clearance. If it has been less than two years since the clearance became inactive, the process will only require a small reinvestigation.
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Locate the information provided with the original clearance activation. When a clearance is inactive for 24 months or more, the process to get Top Secret clearance must start all over again.
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Check the most current credit report to confirm everything is accurate before proceeding.
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Download current security clearance forms, as instructed by the employer, from the U.S. General Services Administration.
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Be prepared to provide employment history, residence, education and an assortment of personal information spanning the last 10 years.
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Update the information to make forms current, and supply them to the qualified employer, who submits them to the government. Interim clearance may be granted as quickly as two to three months.
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Expect clearance to take from six months up to two years. As of 2010, the government was backlogged with applications.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Key secret image by Primabild from Fotolia.com
