INSA Survey on Security Clearance Reciprocity

When a cleared government employee moves to a new agency, or when a cleared contractor undertakes work for a new agency, that person’s security clearance must be transferred to, and accepted by, the receiving agency. This process of accepting a clearance that had been granted or held by another agency is referred to as reciprocity. While one might assume that a security clearance from one agency would be automatically and promptly accepted by other agencies, the time required to process these clearance transfers causes delays that hinder government work and increases costs for both government and industry.

In an effort to improve security clearance reciprocity, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) undertook a study that compiled data from member companies on the movement of contractors with Top Secret (TS) clearances and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access across intelligence agencies. An analysis of reciprocity processing timelines reported by contractors shows that the time required to transfer personnel clearances varies widely by agency – data which suggests that some agencies’ business processes may be more efficient than others’.

Read the entire report, Security Clearance Reciprocity: National Standards and Best Practices to Expedite Clearance Transfers, at the link below.

[button text="Download" url="https://www.insaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/INSA-Security-Clearance-Reciprocity-July-2017.pdf" size="large" type="default" text_color="#fff" mouseover_text_color="#000" bg_color="#14b3e4" bg_transparent="0" mouseover_bg_color="" mouseover_bg_transparent="1" border_color="" border_color_transparent="1" mouseover_border_color="#000" mouseover_border_color_transparent="0" sc_id="sc994339928181"]