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Question: What factors determine approval or disapproval of a Security Clearance?

Answer: The Defense Security Service (DSS) does not approve or disapprove, or make recommendations for approval/disapproval of security clearance for military personnel. All they do is perform background investigations and provide that information to the individual services (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps).

Each of the individual services make their own security clearance approval/disapproval decisions, based on the information provided on the Security Clearance Questionaire, and the information provided by DSS.

In order to make their decisions, the services use adjudicative guidelines, which have been approved for use by the President of the United States.

For an overview of how the Department of Defense (DOD) processes security clearances, see the article, Security Clearance Secrets, available on the Site Home, under the Subject Areas for Joining Up and for General Info.