Skip to content

What is this clearance document?

A directory of the forms and notices that appear in a security clearance case. Search by form number or by a phrase from the page in front of you. Each entry says what the document is, whether it is something you normally see, and where the description comes from.

Many of these are routine processing notices between agencies rather than decisions about you. For the correspondence in a contested case (the interrogatory, the Statement of Reasons, the hearing notice, the decision and the appeal) see correspondence in a DOHA case, which covers those in more depth.

Showing 9 of 45 documents.

Adverse action, hearing and appeal

What arrives when the answer is provisionally no, and what governs the process that follows.

You normally see or sign this.

What it is
A written set of questions put to the individual, used at Energy as an alternative to a personal security interview. Note the terminology trap: in Defense personnel security "LOI" normally means Letter of Intent, which is a different document at a different stage. DOHA’s equivalent instrument is called written interrogatories.
What you do
Answer in writing, completely and consistently with what is already on file. Inconsistency between an answer here and the questionnaire is itself a concern.
Also called
letter of interrogatory, LOI, interrogatory, written interrogatories

Full entry for Letter of Interrogatory

Source: DOE M 470.4-5, Personnel Security. DOE M 470.4-5 Chapter III section 5 is titled "Letters of Interrogatory"; 32 CFR Part 155 Appendix A authorises DOHA written interrogatories.

Access agreements and briefings

What is signed once eligibility exists, and what is signed on the way out.

You normally see or sign this.

What it is
Certification under the Human Reliability Program, the additional screening applied to Energy positions with access to nuclear materials or comparable responsibilities.
Also called
DOE F 470.3, HRP certification, human reliability

Full entry for DOE F 470.3

Source: DOE — Forms. Listed by form number and title on the DOE forms index.

You normally see or sign this.

What it is
The individual’s acknowledgment of, and agreement to take part in, the Human Reliability Program.
What you do
Sign it to enter the programme. Participation is a condition of the position, not an optional extra.
Also called
DOE F 470.4, HRP agreement, agreement to participate

Full entry for DOE F 470.4

Source: DOE — Forms. Listed by form number and title on the DOE forms index.

You normally see or sign this.

What it is
The form recording a refusal to consent within the Human Reliability Program. Refusal has consequences for the position, since participation is a condition of it.
Also called
DOE F 470.6, HRP refusal, refusal of consent

Full entry for DOE F 470.6

Source: DOE — Forms. Listed by form number and title on the DOE forms index.

Getting your own records

How the file is requested and corrected.

File Summary Sheet

DOE F 5631.16

Agency-to-agency. You do not normally see this.

What it is
The sheet used at Energy to record all official access authorization actions, kept on top of the personnel security file.
Also called
file summary sheet, DOE F 5631.16, personnel security file

Full entry for DOE F 5631.16

Source: DOE M 470.4-5, Personnel Security. DOE M 470.4-5: DOE F 5631.16 "must be used to record all official access authorization actions and placed in the individual’s PSF".

How the process worksDocuments arrive in a published order. The stages below follow that order, from the first questionnaire to a request for your own records.

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

Each entry was checked against the issuing agency's own published source, and documents that could not be verified against an official source are deliberately not listed. 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.