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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

Notice of Hearing

In plain terms

This letter states when and where the hearing will be held, before a DOHA Administrative Judge. The rules require at least 15 days' notice; in practice it usually arrives 2 to 4 weeks ahead. Hearings are held reasonably near the applicant (DOHA's guidance uses a “within 150 miles” figure), and many are held by video rather than in person.

What the hearing is like

Department Counsel, the government's lawyer, presents its file first. The applicant then testifies and may present witnesses and documents; hearings commonly run 3 to 5 hours. The burden is on the applicant to show that granting access is clearly consistent with the interests of national security, and any close call is resolved in favor of security.

How long it usually takes

From practitioner experience reflected in the record, Department Counsel usually makes contact within 1 to 3 months after the answer is filed, and the hearing is typically set 30 to 45 days after that contact. For the measured median timelines from decided cases, see the timelines page.

What the record shows

Decided cases that went through a hearing

43% granted · 7,579 granted · 10,101 denied

Before a hearing date, the CASE Prep report assembles an issue-by-issue comparison from similar decided cases.

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.