SF 86
Questionnaire for National Security Positions
What it is
The long personal-history questionnaire behind a national security clearance. It is completed online in eApp, and it becomes the spine of the investigation: almost every later question traces back to an answer, or an omission, on this form.
What you do
Complete every section, then certify and release it to the sponsoring security office. The record treats a discovered omission as more damaging than the underlying issue, so an awkward disclosure is the safer disclosure.
Also called
SF-86, SF86, security questionnaire, eQIP form, eApp questionnaire, clearance application.
Where this comes from
OPM — Federal Investigation Forms. Listed by form number and title on OPM’s federal investigation forms page.
Where this sits
Stage: Questionnaires and releases · Applies to: Government-wide
Other documents at this stage
How the process worksA contested case follows a published sequence. Open this for the short version, or put a question to Ask Mode on the home page. Accounts are free and include up to 25 questions per day.
A contested case follows a published path: a Statement of Reasons, the government's written list of its concerns (an SOR), a written answer, a hearing or a decision on the written record, the judge's decision, and in some cases an appeal.
Read the stages of a DOHA case · Ask a question about the process
Checked against the issuing agency's own published source. Descriptive research on published procedures. Not legal advice, and not a prediction about any pending case.
Where to go from here
I do this for clients
Rank every decision by how closely it matches a matter, see how the assigned judge has ruled, and keep it together with cited exports.
For attorneys and firms →I am researching or teaching
Statistics, exports, monitoring, and the API, arranged individually. For scholarship and public interest work that usually means no charge.
Request access →Decided public cases: descriptive, never a prediction.