Irish Passport & EU Freedom or stay Brit for SC Security clearance work

[GB9]

Dual Nationality isn't an automatic blocker for SC, especially if the 2nd nationality is "friendly".

If it was French, German, Belgian, Swedish or some flavour of Eastern European it would be different.

FTFY

[sasguru]

If you have the skills, getting the option to work in Europe is a no brainer. Post Brexit the contract market is likely to be curtailed, as some multinationals will certainly relocate to the EU.

[bobspud]

Being born in the UK but of Northern Irish parents with the right for me to
apply for an Irish Passport and continue working both here in the UK and
in Ireland and the rest of the European Union, following final Brexit.

Which would be more beneficial to me ?

Remaining a British citizen with only a British passport in order to secure those
must be eligible for SC Security cleared jobs ( but only in the UK )

Or applying for the right to a Southern Irish Passport and broadening my
contracting horizons ( as I speak a couple of European languages )
so I can still continue to carry on contracting in the UK but also continue
to carry out any Contract work I fancy in the EU as well following
final Brexit.

The feedback I'm getting so far is - go for the Irish Passport as the SC
Security cleared jobs are not all they are cracked up to be and are situated
in those parts of the UK Contractors wouldn't be seen dead in
and besides everything else, your likely to spend less time on the
bench with an Irish Passport than a British one after final Brexit.

Nevertheless - there's an awful lot of SC Security work about these days
and growing in numbers all the time.

A few points to consider.

1) SC if you don't have one now you probably aren't going to get one. So stop worrying. SC clearances are becoming less of an issue with many departments moving to Disclosure Scotland / BC. With SC/DV for people that actually really need them. The government has also changed its classification markings to make life mostly easier. But If you don't work in Government you are not like to be a cultural fit and you will actually struggle to understand why we do things the way we do. Most of the time the guys I see fail in Government jobs are the ones that have no prior experience in the field. For that reason its not SC I want when I look at candidates its previous stints with government that last over 12 months. We all know that nothing happens in 3 or 6 months so lots of little Government gigs will just show you don't fit in.

2) Before you go the the expense of trying the SI route why don't you just use the EU free movement rules to go find a job in Europe

3) stop whining about the end of the world because we chose to get the ***** out of dodge and walk away from a massively corrupt and unaccountable system. It shows far more lack of character to those around you than not having the right passport or clearance.



Good luck.

[eek]

A few points to consider.

We all know that nothing happens in 3 or 6 months so lots of little Government gigs will just show you don't fit in.

And that's why the Government wastes billions on IT projects....

[Tightfit]

If you have the skills, getting the option to work in Europe is a no brainer. Post Brexit the contract market is likely to be curtailed, as some multinationals will certainly relocate to the EU.

And low and behold, it came to pass in a Post Brexit Britain that the only jobs left in the UK are those requiring SC Security Clearance or above.
All the rest went offshore years ago.

[Tightfit]

Why can't you keep both passports?

Applying for my German passport, don't have to give up my UK passport until Brexit completes.

Either way, still manage to work on SC jobs in the UK despite being resident in Germany.

Of course it's best for the SC contractor to have maintained UK residency for the past 5 years.
Any long gigs outside the UK and Non resident UK for any length of time - would be an issue.

[Tightfit]

A few points to consider.

1) SC if you don't have one now you probably aren't going to get one. So stop worrying. SC clearances are becoming less of an issue with many departments moving to Disclosure Scotland / BC. With SC/DV for people that actually really need them. The government has also changed its classification markings to make life mostly easier. But If you don't work in Government you are not like to be a cultural fit and you will actually struggle to understand why we do things the way we do. Most of the time the guys I see fail in Government jobs are the ones that have no prior experience in the field. For that reason its not SC I want when I look at candidates its previous stints with government that last over 12 months. We all know that nothing happens in 3 or 6 months so lots of little Government gigs will just show you don't fit in.

2) Before you go the the expense of trying the SI route why don't you just use the EU free movement rules to go find a job in Europe

3) stop whining about the end of the world because we chose to get the ***** out of dodge and walk away from a massively corrupt and unaccountable system. It shows far more lack of character to those around you than not having the right passport or clearance.



Good luck.

Let me see now - how many non government organisations ask for SC ?

Well theres:
Rolls Royce, Fujitsu, HP, BAE Systems, Experian, Pomeroy and a multitude of Network Operation Centres
require their Cisco router engineers to be SC cleared these days.
There's more, I'm sure.

[Tightfit]

Knock on effect of British Expat parents giving up British Nationality !!

Now here's a thought for all those sons and daughters in IT with parents either living or retired abroad in a member state of the EU, like the popular Expat destinations of France and Spain.

Obviously those British Expats are all fretting about their future status in the EU and during the enormous vacuum of anything concrete from May and the Brexit
team.
Many are going for French, Spanish or whatever other EU country nationality, in order to safeguard and retain their rights & future status, together with free movement in the EU.

Now here's the nasty bit - Spain for example doesn't recognize Dual Nationality and in order for your British Expat parents to become Spanish citizens with the desired Spanish passport - they will have to satisfy the Spanish authorities that they have renounced their British citizenship and nationality.

As we all know - when filling in forms for SC Security clearance, we all have to provide information about our parents and their background, nationality and everything.
Of course it gets even worst when graduating to DV cleared jobs.

Now I don't know how the authorities at the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting Agency would view your Mom and Dad renouncing British citizenship and going over to the other side ( namely Spain and the EU ) after Britain separates from the EU.
But I'm sure they are not going to look upon it kindly, as this could be viewed as evidence of the families gross disloyalty to the Crown !!

One things for certain, for those that are going for SC Security clearance or already
hold SC Security clearance - it's a material change in your circumstances that has to be declared !!

[DaveB]

Now here's a thought for all those sons and daughters in IT with parents either living or retired abroad in a member state of the EU, like the popular Expat destinations of France and Spain.

Obviously those British Expats are all fretting about their future status in the EU and during the enormous vacuum of anything concrete from May and the Brexit
team.
Many are going for French, Spanish or whatever other EU country nationality, in order to safeguard and retain their rights and future status, together with free movement in the EU.

Now here's the nasty bit - Spain for example doesn't recognize Dual Nationality and in order for your British Expat parents to become Spanish citizens with the desired Spanish passport - they will have to satisfy the Spanish authorities that they have renounced their British citizenship and nationality.

As we all know - when filling in forms for SC Security clearance, we all have to provide information about our parents and their background, nationality and everything.

Now I don't know how the authorities at the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting Agency would view your Mom and Dad renouncing British citizenship and going over to the other side ( namely Spain and the EU ) after Britain separates from the EU.
But I'm sure they are not going to look kindly upon it, as this could be viewed as evidence of the families gross disloyalty to the Crown !!

One things for certain, for those that are going for SC Security clearance or already
hold SC Security clearance - it's a material change in your circumstances that has to be declared !!

You are making a lot of assumptions about the clearance process. It's not about "loyalty to the crown" it's about whether you can be trusted to handle sensitive information, whether you are at risk of blackmail or other coercion, or subject to circumstances where you might be tempted to profit from the access you have.

Provided you are open and honest in the information you give then the chances are that unless you are heavily in debt, have a drug or gambling problem or a criminal past involving fraud or theft, you will be cleared. Lying on the application is generally what gets you refused clearance.

Despite what the frothing Brexiters might say, we do actually trust our European partners on security matters and having a partner or other family who hold dual nationality or may have changed nationalities for another European country is really neither here nor there. Brexit really won't change anything with regard to getting clearance. Nationality only really becomes an issue if it involves countries we don't trust like Russia, China and large parts of the Middle East.

[bobspud]

Let me see now - how many non government organisations ask for SC ?

Well theres:
Rolls Royce, Fujitsu, HP, BAE Systems, Experian, Pomeroy and a multitude of Network Operation Centres
require their Cisco router engineers to be SC cleared these days.
There's more, I'm sure.

Yep thats out of ignorance not necessity but either way if thats what they are looking for out of a candidate, then you would not fit in as you have never worked in that type of environment. I used to think that was a bad idea until I worked with a bunch of ex bankers that more or less destroyed the government department they were "helping" because they didn't get the idea that achieving a 3 month delivery of the wrong thing leaving 10 years of support issues was not progress.