In fiscal year 2007 the U.S. Office of Personnel Management conducted about 1.7 million background investigations for federal employment and security clearances. There are about 3.2 million people who hold security clearances granted by the federal government who must undergo reinvestigations every 5, 10, or 15 years. Almost 2.5 million of these individuals are affiliated with the Department of Defense (DoD civilian, military and contractor personnel).

A September 2006 General Accountability Office report (GAO-06-1070) involving the analysis of 2,259 DoD Contractor personnel security clearances determined that it took an average of 446 days for an initial Top Secret clearance (545 days for a reinvestigation). The report did not consider cases involving significant security/suitability issues that take much longer to complete.

There have been countless studies and recommendations by government agencies and commissions to shorten the time required to issue security clearances. All have focused on the processes used by investigative and adjudicative agencies, but none have addressed what the individual applicant can do to reduce the time involved. Defense industry analysts have estimated that delays in granting security clearances result in billions of dollars in lost productivity each year.

Security Clearance Manual was written specifically for the applicant. Everyone who is accepted for employment with the federal government in a sensitive position, everyone who enters the U.S. Armed Forces (active, reserve, or National Guard), and more than two hundred thousand federal contractors each year must submit an application for a security investigation. With a basic understanding of the investigative scope and adjudicative criteria, as well as the methodology used by the investigator, the vast majority of applicants can prepare their Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86—SF86) or its electronic equivalent in a manner that will result in their clearance being issued in much less than the average time that it currently takes. More than half of the book provides specific guidance on completing each section of the SF86 to speed up the investigation and adjudication.