Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline B · Foreign Influence
In-law (citizen/resident of foreign country)
Does in-law (citizen/resident of foreign country) affect a security clearance?
Basis: 1,023 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.
Decided cases
1,024
hearing-level decisions raising this issue
Granted
52%
528 granted · 495 denied or revoked
Official mitigating conditions cited
| Condition | In granted cases | In denied cases |
|---|---|---|
| ¶ 8(a) · A conflict between foreign and United States interests is unlikely | 279 | 22 |
| ¶ 8(b) · Deep and longstanding ties to the United States | 195 | 13 |
| ¶ 8(c) · Contact so casual and infrequent that there is little risk | 72 | 12 |
| ¶ 8(e) · Reporting requirements met promptly | 18 | 3 |
| ¶ 8(f) · Foreign interests too small to be used for influence | 16 | 2 |
| ¶ 8(d) · Contact on United States Government business, or approved by the agency | 9 | 0 |
¶ 8(a) · A conflict between foreign and United States interests is unlikely
- In granted cases
- 279
- In denied cases
- 22
¶ 8(b) · Deep and longstanding ties to the United States
- In granted cases
- 195
- In denied cases
- 13
¶ 8(c) · Contact so casual and infrequent that there is little risk
- In granted cases
- 72
- In denied cases
- 12
¶ 8(e) · Reporting requirements met promptly
- In granted cases
- 18
- In denied cases
- 3
¶ 8(f) · Foreign interests too small to be used for influence
- In granted cases
- 16
- In denied cases
- 2
¶ 8(d) · Contact on United States Government business, or approved by the agency
- In granted cases
- 9
- In denied cases
- 0
Circumstances credited in granted cases
- deep U.S. ties · credited in 148 granted cases
- severed foreign contact · credited in 5 granted cases
- U.S. military service · credited in 3 granted cases
- foreign assets divested · credited in 2 granted cases
- voluntary disclosure before confrontation · credited in 1 granted case
Recent decided examples
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 …
Applicant, an armed security supervisor for a U.S. installation in Kosovo, faced Guideline B allegations based on family ties, a home, and a bank account in Kosovo. He admitted all SOR allegations but…
The applicant's eligibility for access to classified information was denied due to unmitigated foreign influence security concerns. Despite admitting to all allegations, including maintaining foreign …
The applicant's security clearance was denied due to unresolved financial issues and foreign influence concerns. He admitted to having approximately $23,037 in delinquent debt and acknowledged that hi…
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.
Where to go from here
Get help with my case
Send us your question, or the Statement of Reasons you received. No charge, and a CASE analyst reads it. Usually five to ten business days.
Ask a question →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 →Decided public cases: descriptive, never a prediction.