Freaking out about interim clearance
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2026 1:11 pm
Hello, I just got the award notification today. It is for a SF that I already was onboarding for for the normal student intern program. Because I was already in the process, I filled out the SF86 in January and had my interview with DCSA in February. I have not gotten interim clearance eligibility, and I think an SF security person implied to me that I am not going to get interim just because a whole set of criteria has to be fulfilled for it, and despite me not having any serious red flags that would prevent me obtaining a final clearance, I somehow did not fulfill all the criteria. (They did not tell me what was not met specifically).
Now my investigation has been underway for about two months so I'm hoping that basically my clearance is well underway and should be done by August. But do you think there is a chance the SF or SMART would rescind the offer for not getting interim despite already being well underway in the security clearance process? Who would make the decision?
This is just causing me a lot of stress because this opportunity means so much to me, and I would feel devastated to have it yanked away for something so trivial (getting an interim wouldn't really serve a functional purpose because I won't work at the SF until next May). I hope there is some room for discretion, and instead of blanket rescinding every single person who can't get interim for innocent reasons, they instead only rescind those which they know have no hope of being granted a final clearance.
Now my investigation has been underway for about two months so I'm hoping that basically my clearance is well underway and should be done by August. But do you think there is a chance the SF or SMART would rescind the offer for not getting interim despite already being well underway in the security clearance process? Who would make the decision?
This is just causing me a lot of stress because this opportunity means so much to me, and I would feel devastated to have it yanked away for something so trivial (getting an interim wouldn't really serve a functional purpose because I won't work at the SF until next May). I hope there is some room for discretion, and instead of blanket rescinding every single person who can't get interim for innocent reasons, they instead only rescind those which they know have no hope of being granted a final clearance.