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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline C · Foreign Preference

Service in a Foreign Military or Government

What the decided record shows for this issue, computed from public DOHA hearing-level decisions. Descriptive history, not a prediction.

Does service in a foreign military or government affect a security clearance?

Service in a Foreign Military or Government is an issue decided under Guideline C, Foreign Preference. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 143 hearing-level cases, and 55% of the 143 decided ended with access granted (79 granted, 64 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 143 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

143

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

55%

79 granted · 64 denied or revoked

Official mitigating conditions cited

The formal mitigating conditions the case profiles identified on this issue, in cases that were granted and in cases that were denied. Each is shown with its paragraph number and a plain name. Read what each condition says.

  • ¶ 11(b) · Dual citizenship from parentage or place of birth alone

    In granted cases
    30
    In denied cases
    2

  • ¶ 11(a) · The foreign citizenship does not conflict with United States interests

    In granted cases
    15
    In denied cases
    1

  • ¶ 11(c) · A stated willingness to renounce the foreign citizenship

    In granted cases
    10
    In denied cases
    3

  • ¶ 11(d) · The foreign citizenship was exercised before becoming a United States citizen

    In granted cases
    8
    In denied cases
    1

  • ¶ 11(e) · The benefits of foreign citizenship raise no security concern

    In granted cases
    7
    In denied cases
    0

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • willingness to renounce foreign citizenship · credited in 1 granted case

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 19-03737Granted2022

    the applicant held dual citizenship with Israel and had served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The Statement of Reasons (SOR) raised concerns under Guideline B (Foreign Influence) and Guideline C…

  • ISCR Case No. 19-00378Granted2020

    The applicant in this case was a retired British Army lieutenant colonel who held dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Department of Defense issued a Statement of Reasons …

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00962Denied2026

    Applicant, a naturalized U.S. citizen and defense contractor engineer, was denied a security clearance. The judge found Guideline C concerns mitigated because the alleged foreign passport use was cred…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00668Denied2026

    Applicant, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Somali-born linguist, was denied a clearance under Guidelines B and C. The judge found that after returning to Somalia, Applicant reclaimed Somali citizenship…

See all 143 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline C

How these numbers are measured

Scope: decided hearing-level cases whose per-allegation profile records this issue, matched to the same issue value the search filters use, so a count here and a filtered search always agree. A case raising several issues counts under each one. The mitigating conditions and the credited circumstances below were extracted for a subset of the record, so both are counts of cases rather than rates. Pages exist only for issues with at least 25 decided cases, and † marks any split built on fewer than 20.

Reading the statistics

  • Granted = access granted or continued; Denied = denied or revoked.
  • Grant rate = granted ÷ (granted + denied).
  • † marks figures based on fewer than 20 cases, too few to be reliable.
  • Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
  • Figures are descriptive counts over decided, public DOHA ISCR decisions, never predictions or assessments of any pending case.

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