How does being married to a foreign national affect the ability to obtain a clearance?
The Defense Security Service conducts background investigations on persons whose employment requires them to be cleared as eligible to have access to Confidential, Secret, Top Secret (TS) and/or Special Compartmented Information (SCI). DSS does not make the decision whether a person meets the eligibility requirements and should be given access. This decision is made by various adjudicative bodies, depending on the applicant’s employer (i.e., DoD contractor, Army, Navy, Air Force, etc.). Each adjudicative body follows uniform regulatory guidelines in making clearance eligibility determinations, however, and these guidelines do not necessarily disqualify an individual based on their having a foreign national spouse. Each case is investigated and evaluated on its own merits. If it is determined that the spouse would not constitute a security risk, a clearance will be granted assuming no other disqualifying factors. It should be noted, however, that anyone requiring SCI eligibility is also
