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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline B · Foreign Influence

Friend in foreign country

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

Does friend in foreign country affect a security clearance?

Friend in foreign country is an issue decided under Guideline B, Foreign Influence. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 393 hearing-level cases, and 51% of the 393 decided ended with access granted (202 granted, 191 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 393 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

393

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

51%

202 granted · 191 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.

  • ¶ 8(a) · A conflict between foreign and United States interests is unlikely

    In granted cases
    89
    In denied cases
    13

  • ¶ 8(b) · Deep and longstanding ties to the United States

    In granted cases
    55
    In denied cases
    6

  • ¶ 8(c) · Contact so casual and infrequent that there is little risk

    In granted cases
    32
    In denied cases
    7

  • ¶ 8(e) · Reporting requirements met promptly

    In granted cases
    8
    In denied cases
    0

  • ¶ 8(f) · Foreign interests too small to be used for influence

    In granted cases
    5
    In denied cases
    1

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • deep U.S. ties · credited in 31 granted cases
  • severed foreign contact · credited in 2 granted cases
  • contact disclosed to authorities · credited in 1 granted case
  • foreign assets divested · credited in 1 granted case
  • voluntary disclosure before confrontation · credited in 1 granted case

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 22-01391Granted2026

    The case involves an applicant seeking security clearance who faced allegations under Guideline B for foreign influence and Guideline H for drug involvement. The applicant admitted to the allegations …

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00407Granted2026

    Applicant, a Moldovan-born senior national security analyst and U.S. citizen, faced Guideline B allegations based on family, friend, and financial ties to Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, and Russia. She ad…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01419Denied2026

    The case involves security concerns under multiple guidelines, including criminal conduct, alcohol consumption, personal conduct, foreign influence, and financial considerations. The applicant admitte…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00899Denied2026

    The applicant's security clearance application was denied due to failure to mitigate foreign influence concerns related to relationships with individuals from the People's Republic of China. The appli…

See all 393 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline B

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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