DV Clearance Questions/Clarifications

[WanabeContractor]

Hi , I have a couple of question about my DV clearance in which I hope someone can answer/provide clarification. I currently work for an IT consultancy.

1. Who holds my DV clearance? Is it my current employer? Or is it an agency such as DVA? I hear only3-4 organisations can hold it…including the FCO and MoD???

2. If I setup my own Ltd company and be an independent contractor; can I transfer the DV to my ltd?? What should I do when I do setup my ltd?

3. For my first contract, if the client requires DV, should they be contacting an organisation such as DVA, FCO etc to validate it?

4. How long (weeks, Months) on bench do you have to be before your DV lapses?

5. I’m working for a client, in which my previous client took 3.5 months to transfer my DV to my new client (I was on bench for this time). Has anyone experienced this for a transfer?

Many thanks in advance , I look forward to your responses.

[nomadd]

Hi , I have a couple of question about my DV clearance in which I hope someone can answer/provide clarification. I currently work for an IT consultancy.

1. Who holds my DV clearance? Is it my current employer? Or is it an agency such as DVA? I hear only3-4 organisations can hold it…including the FCO and MoD???

2. If I setup my own Ltd company and be an independent contractor; can I transfer the DV to my ltd?? What should I do when I do setup my ltd?

3. For my first contract, if the client requires DV, should they be contacting an organisation such as DVA, FCO etc to validate it?

4. How long (weeks, Months) on bench do you have to be before your DV lapses?

5. I’m working for a client, in which my previous client took 3.5 months to transfer my DV to my new client (I was on bench for this time). Has anyone experienced this for a transfer?

Many thanks in advance , I look forward to your responses.

NLUK in 3..2..1..

(To the OP: hint - Use Search before the bogeyman gets you!)

[Gentile]

Hi , I have a couple of question about my DV clearance in which I hope someone can answer/provide clarification. I currently work for an IT consultancy.

1. Who holds my DV clearance? Is it my current employer? Or is it an agency such as DVA? I hear only3-4 organisations can hold it…including the FCO and MoD???

2. If I setup my own Ltd company and be an independent contractor; can I transfer the DV to my ltd?? What should I do when I do setup my ltd?

3. For my first contract, if the client requires DV, should they be contacting an organisation such as DVA, FCO etc to validate it?

4. How long (weeks, Months) on bench do you have to be before your DV lapses?

5. I’m working for a client, in which my previous client took 3.5 months to transfer my DV to my new client (I was on bench for this time). Has anyone experienced this for a transfer?

Many thanks in advance , I look forward to your responses.

To save you an NLUK-ing:

1. It'll be held by whomever carried out your vetting. As you note, only a few organisations can carry out a DV check. Some of them don't share info with the others. The ones that do share info (typically the Developed Vetting Agency and the MOD) contribute to a shared database that is accessible by each of those agencies. This means that approved agencies can put in your DOB and name to check whether you're presently DV cleared or not. When they check an individual in this way, their search is saved and logged, so there's reduced scope for anyone abusing the system.
   
   
2. Generally speaking, no, you can't retain your DV as a private individual / Contractor unless you were originally cleared as a Contractor, though it's really up to whomever vetted you. You may be able to transfer a DV from one employer to another if the entity that originally vetted you agrees to cooperate, but they're under no obligation to do so and there's very little incentive for them to (i.e., they'd be taking on the responsibility for vetting you if you do anything wrong, without benefiting from the work that you'll be doing themselves).
   
   
3. If you mean a pre-existing DV, then it's you that needs to contact your former vetting entity to get them to pass on your DV status on to the new vetting entity. As noted, though, it's unlikely that your former vetting entity would be willing to get involved in clearing you for work as private individual or Contractor for a different entity's benefit. Unless you're already on the DV-cleared database that some vetting entities contribute to, it's unlikely that a former vetting entity will want to get involved in approving you for any DV-cleared work with a separate entity.
   
   
4. Typically, DV clearance expires after 12 months, following which you should be re-cleared. If you've worked with the entity that vetted you continuously since your previous vetting, though, it has been known for 2-3 years to pass between successive re-vettings.
   
   
5. This question makes it look like you already had answers to the four preceding questions that were pertinent to your specific situation. OK, NLUK, over to you...

[malvolio]

This may be a clue... http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...questions.html.

But anyway:

1. Who holds my DV clearance? Is it my current employer? Or is it an agency such as DVA? I hear only3-4 organisations can hold it…including the FCO and MoD???

Nobody. The clearance goes with the role and whoever holds the role is monitored by the local SSO

2. If I setup my own Ltd company and be an independent contractor; can I transfer the DV to my ltd?? What should I do when I do setup my ltd?

Get on the Catalist supplier list, then get registered as a List-X company as a key suppllier to the MOD. Then you may be able to manage DV clearances on your own behalf (hint: you can't actually do this unless you can compete one-to-one with the likes of Logica).

3. For my first contract, if the client requires DV, should they be contacting an organisation such as DVA, FCO etc to validate it?

Yes. So?

]4. How long (weeks, Months) on bench do you have to be before your DV lapses?

It goes with the role, so it laspes as soon as you leave the role that requires it. DVA will keep your file for a year and you may be able to transfer to another cleared role, but it's not guaranteed as soon as you are out of the sight of the various security teams.

5. I’m working for a client, in which my previous client took 3.5 months to transfer my DV to my new client (I was on bench for this time). Has anyone experienced this for a transfer?

No. For three months, you've been re-vetted, not transferred. DV is serious stuiff, people are very picky about it.

Many thanks in advance , I look forward to your responses.

You think?

BTW, bench time as a contractor means no income. I assume you've thought of that...

[WanabeContractor]

Gentile, malvolio,

Many thanks for your quick replies....much appreciated

[Sockpuppet]

You may want to keep quiet about the DV on the internet. Technically mentioning you have it is one of the ways you can lose it

[northernladuk]

[*]This question makes it look like you already had answers to the four preceding questions that were pertinent to your specific situation. OK, NLUK, over to you...[/LIST][/INDENT]

Erm... thanks...not too sure I can add after that and Mals post. I would however agree with SP and comment on asking DV questions in open forums. If you want answers I would be more inclined to speak to your employers security team or use the google method to search the forums. You can find how to do that in a sticky in the welcome/faq section of the forums..

Apart from that.. do you like films about gladiators?