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CASE

Correspondence in a DOHA case

Each letter in a contested case: what it is, what it means, what to do, what happens next, and what the decided record shows. Select the letter you received.

Before any decision

Interrogatory (LOI)

The government's case

SORFORMNotice of Hearing

Decision and appeal

The decisionAppeal Board

Eligibility granted, the SF-312, and activation

In plain terms

A notice that eligibility has been granted. A grant comes with paperwork before first access to classified information. The main document is the SF-312, the Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement, signed before first access as a condition of that access. For a contractor, the facility security officer handles activation.

What comes with it

Holding a clearance is not a one-time event; it carries ongoing duties. For example, unofficial foreign travel generally must be approved in advance, and certain foreign contacts must be reported (these come from a rule called SEAD-3). The clearance facts page covers those duties, and the official blank SF-312 form is published by the National Archives: SF-312 (PDF).

If the document received is not correspondence in a contested case (a questionnaire, a release, a fingerprint request, a processing notice, or an access agreement), see the clearance document directory, which identifies each form and notice by its number.

How the process worksThe letters sit inside a published sequence: interrogatories, the SOR, a hearing or the written record, a decision, and an appeal.

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

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Decided public cases: descriptive, never a prediction.