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What the clearance levels mean.

A job on this site can ask for Public Trust, Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI. Those are not four steps on one ladder. Public Trust is a background check for sensitive work that does not involve classified information. Secret and Top Secret are clearances for classified information. TS/SCI is a Top Secret clearance plus a separate grant of access to intelligence compartments.

You cannot open a clearance on yourself. A federal agency, or a contractor that already holds a facility clearance, has to sponsor you because a specific job needs it. The rules below are the public baseline. A posting, a contract, or an agency can be stricter.

How a posting on this site is labeled

The clearance line on a job page is taken from the posting, not guessed from the employer. When that line is a level such as Secret, the posting requires you to already hold an active clearance at that level. The filter matches the level exactly: Secret does not include Top Secret or TS/SCI. “Eligibility required” means the posting asks only that you be able to obtain a clearance. “No Clearance Required” means the posting says both an active clearance and eligibility are not required. “Not specified” means the posting did not say.

Public Trust

Public Trust is not a security clearance. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency lists it as non-sensitive public trust: a suitability check for a job that can affect the integrity or efficiency of government work, without granting access to classified information. DCSA’s case-type table assigns a moderate-risk public trust job a Tier 2 investigation and Standard Form 85P, and a high-risk public trust job a Tier 4 investigation and the same form. Suitability decisions of this kind are governed by 5 CFR Part 731.

Holding Public Trust does not let you see Secret material, and a Public Trust investigation is not the investigation used for a Secret clearance. Employers still call it a “Public Trust clearance.” On this site the label means the posting requires that active public-trust determination.

Secret

Secret is a national security clearance. Under Executive Order 13526, Secret is applied to information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security. Confidential, the level below it, uses the lower standard of “damage.” Top Secret uses “exceptionally grave damage.”

For a contractor, Secret access lines up with a non-critical-sensitive, moderate-risk position. That investigation is Tier 3, requested on the Standard Form 86. The same regulation groups the L, Confidential, and Secret levels on that tier, and groups Q, Top Secret, and SCI on the higher tier. 32 CFR 117.10 and the DCSA case-type table are the sources for those pairings. An L clearance is the Department of Energy’s counterpart in that lower group, not a fifth level we track separately.

Top Secret

Top Secret is the highest classification level in Executive Order 13526. It covers information whose unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. The investigation is Tier 5, also on the Standard Form 86, for critical-sensitive or special-sensitive positions. DCSA and 32 CFR 117.10 both put Top Secret on that tier. The Department of Energy’s Q clearance sits in the same group.

A Top Secret clearance does not by itself admit someone to intelligence compartments. Those are the SCI grant described below. A current eligibility based on an investigation at least as broad as the new job requires is normally reused rather than redone, under Security Executive Agent Directive 7. SCI access and a polygraph do not travel with that reciprocity automatically.

TS/SCI

TS/SCI means a Top Secret clearance plus Sensitive Compartmented Information. SCI is not a higher classification than Top Secret. It is a further decision, made by the granting authority for that intelligence information, about which compartments a person may enter. Compartments cover specific intelligence sources and methods. Need-to-know still applies inside a compartment. 32 CFR 117.10 states that access to SCI is a separate determination from eligibility for classified information generally.

A polygraph is common on intelligence and special-access jobs, and it is not part of the definition of TS/SCI. An agency that has a polygraph policy may require an exam when it decides one is necessary. 32 CFR 117.10 says that, and Security Executive Agent Directive 2 is the government-wide polygraph policy. Read the posting: “TS/SCI” and “TS/SCI with polygraph” are different asks.

Can I apply if I do not have a clearance?

Yes, when the posting is willing to sponsor you. Nobody walks into DCSA and requests a clearance. The sponsoring agency decides which investigation to open. DCSA’s applicant guide describes that sponsorship. A cleared contractor may submit you before your first day only after a written job offer that you have accepted in writing, and the offer has to say work starts within 45 days of eligibility being granted. 32 CFR 117.10 also forbids a contractor from requesting clearances just to keep a pool of cleared people on the shelf. There has to be a contract need.

That is why the wording of the posting matters. “Must be able to obtain a Secret clearance” means the employer expects to sponsor you after an offer. “Must currently hold an active Secret clearance” means they want someone whose investigation is already done. You can still send an application. Many of those roles will not wait the months a new investigation takes, and they are not required to sponsor you.

Do not pay a service that claims it can get you cleared without an employer. Only a sponsor can open the case.

Who is eligible

Access to classified information requires U.S. citizenship. A contractor has to collect proof of citizenship before requesting that eligibility. A non-citizen can be granted a limited access authorization only in rare cases, for a unique skill on a specific contract, and that authorization cannot cover Top Secret or intelligence information. 32 CFR 117.10 is the contractor rule. Public Trust, because it is not classified access, does not use that citizenship rule. The agency or the contract often requires citizenship anyway, and the posting is what controls.

The decision itself is a whole-person judgment under the National Security Adjudicative Guidelines, Security Executive Agent Directive 4. The guidelines cover allegiance to the United States, foreign influence, foreign preference, sexual behavior, personal conduct, financial considerations, alcohol, drugs, psychological conditions, criminal conduct, handling protected information, outside activities, and use of information technology. A past problem is not an automatic rejection. Hiding it is treated more severely than the problem: DCSA warns that withholding, misrepresenting, or falsifying information can cost you the job, the clearance, and can be prosecuted. Foreign family, foreign contacts, and dual citizenship are weighed under the foreign influence and foreign preference guidelines. They are not, by themselves, a bar.

Drug involvement is Guideline H of those same adjudicative guidelines. The Security Executive Agent has published separate clarifying guidance on marijuana. Federal investigations still treat marijuana as a controlled substance. Read that guidance rather than relying on state legalization.

What the process is

DCSA lays the investigation out in this order. Your sponsor picks the level. You complete the questionnaire in the government’s electronic system, certify it, and sign releases. Fingerprints are required the first time. Secret and Top Secret use the Standard Form 86. Public Trust uses the Standard Form 85P. The sponsor reviews the form for completeness only. For a contractor, the facility security officer is not allowed to use your answers for anything else inside the company.

Investigators then check law enforcement, courts, employers, schools, and financial records. At the higher tiers they also interview you and people who know you. Several investigators may work the case at once. The completed investigation goes back to the sponsoring agency, which makes the suitability or security decision. DCSA investigates for many agencies. It does not, by itself, grant every clearance.

If the decision is favorable and the job needs classified access, you sign a nondisclosure agreement, the Standard Form 312, before anyone shows you classified information. SCI, if the job needs it, is an additional indoctrination by the intelligence granting authority. After you are cleared, DCSA’s model is shifting from a periodic reinvestigation to continuous vetting, which watches for changes while you hold eligibility. You are expected to report life changes that affect that eligibility. Ask your security office what to report.

How long it takes

There is no promised number of days. The government has timeliness goals and has been missing them. The Government Accountability Office reported that, as of the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, agencies took an average of 206 days to finish the fastest 90 percent of initial Top Secret clearances, 92 days past the 114-day goal. Average times for those Top Secret cases had been getting longer from fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2025, and the investigative phase for both initial Secret and initial Top Secret clearances had missed its goal since 2021. GAO-26-108838, testimony to the House Oversight Committee in February 2026, is the source for those figures. They are averages for the faster cases. A case with long foreign residence, complicated finances, or a polygraph can take longer. A clean case can finish sooner.

The government can let you start before the final decision. Under Security Executive Agent Directive 8, the agency may grant temporary eligibility, which used to be called an interim clearance, for Top Secret, Secret, or Confidential. It is discretionary. It requires that nothing already on file calls your eligibility into question. It is not available to non-U.S. citizens. It is not supposed to last more than a year unless the agency extends it. Access to SCI on a temporary determination is yet another decision by the granting authority. If later information is unfavorable, the temporary eligibility can be withdrawn, and that withdrawal is not a denial you can appeal.

Practical notes

  • A current clearance at a higher investigative scope usually covers a job at a lower classification. SEAD 7 is the reciprocity rule. Plan on a new review for SCI and for any polygraph the new agency requires.
  • Public Trust will not satisfy a posting that says Secret. They are different investigations and different forms.
  • If you leave cleared work, eligibility does not last forever. A break in employment can mean the contractor cannot restore access without a new determination. 32 CFR 117.10 covers that break-in-employment rule.
  • Status questions go to your agency security officer or, at a company, the facility security officer. DCSA will not discuss your case with you directly while a sponsor owns it.

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