SC Clearance - Lived abroad?

[up4it]

Has anyone ever managed to obtain SC clearance after having spent 6 months living abroad in an EU/NATO country or anywhere else for that matter?

Also, would it make a difference if the person had held SC previously?

[stek]

SC Clearance - Lived abroad?

My mate had two years in CH, got his, only a five year one and took ages.....

Was a permie role.

There's no chance as a contractor tho I reckon.

[northernladuk]

It used to be quicker to get through the process if you had previously held it but a) am not sure that is the case any more and b) quicker is still a very long time, too long for most contracts to wait so still holds no water with the agents.

Anyone applied for SC recently and give us an idea of the wait time nowadays?

[bless 'em all]

Anyone applied for SC recently and give us an idea of the wait time nowadays?

The guy I sit next to had his completed in about 6 weeks. I doubt he'd lived abroad for any time though.

[northernladuk]

The guy I sit next to had his completed in about 6 weeks. I doubt he'd lived abroad for any time though.

Bloody hell! Really. They have certainly cleaned their act up. 6 months wasn't uncommon last I was involved.

[up4it]

In 2011 I got mine in 8 weeks. If you have moved around a lot it will take longer as there are more addresses to check out!

[herman_g]

I applied for SC clearance in 2007 after only 7 months in the UK.

It was granted in about 4 or 5 months - about the same as other contractors that started the same time as me. However, since they were unable to do credit checks in Germany and Canada ( I was quite surprised as they gave the impression they could research everything ) where I had spent 6.5 of the previous 7 years. My SC clearance was limited to 1 year as a result.

One contractor never did get his clearance back ( he worked right through ). The budget was slashed and we all walked at about 11 months anyway.

[JoJoGabor]

Last year mine took 5 months to come back with a fail, because I had been backpacking in India for two months within the last five years. So I guess I could have been at a terrorist training camp as far as they were concerned

[up4it]

I once worked with a Muslim convert who asked for a 3 month sabbatical from a large UK defence company because he wanted to go to a Islamic training camp in Afghanistan. 100% true! The Manager did not know he was going there but his request was rejected anyway. That was before 9/11 when the Afghans were fighting the Russians instead of NATO.

[Normie]

It used to be quicker to get through the process if you had previously held it but a) am not sure that is the case any more and b) quicker is still a very long time, too long for most contracts to wait so still holds no water with the agents.

Anyone applied for SC recently and give us an idea of the wait time nowadays?

Not sure about SC, but DV clearances seem to be coming through more quickly now. Guy next me had his clearance come through in less than 3 months. When I was vetted DVA told me that most of the delays are due to the slow response times from referees, previous managers, etc.