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Clearance process · Processing times

How long does a security clearance take?

DCSA briefs industry each quarter on how long finished cases took. These are its latest figures for initial Secret and Top Secret clearances, phase by phase, with what they can and cannot tell you about one case.

Processing time · reported by DCSA

How long it is taking, as of FY2026 Q4 · briefed October 6, 2026

DCSA measures how long cases actually took and briefs the figures to industry each quarter. These are its most recent public numbers. They describe cases that have finished; they are not a schedule for any one case.

Initial SecretTier 3

238 days

end to end, average of all industry cases

  • Initiation21
  • Investigation71
  • Adjudication146

Initial Top SecretTier 5

276 days

end to end, average of all industry cases

  • Initiation23
  • Investigation95
  • Adjudication158

Investigation phase onlyDCSA average

  • Tier 3 case71
  • Tier 5 case95

DCSA's August 2026 figures for the part it runs itself as the investigative service provider. The rest of the wait is initiation by the sponsor and adjudication by the deciding authority.

What these are measured against

  • 114 days the goal for an initial Top Secret, end to end. Agencies have not met it: 206 days for the fastest 90% at FY2025-Q2 (GAO, February 2026).
  • 60 and 20 days the FY2026 investigation-phase targets for High Risk (includes Top Secret) and Moderate Risk (includes Secret) cases, fastest 90% (PAC, FY2026-Q2).
Before quoting any of these
  • Two different yardsticks. DCSA now reports the average of all cases; older figures reported only the fastest 90%. A 276-day average cannot be set next to an older "fastest 90%" number to measure how much worse things got.
  • An average is not a schedule. These describe cases that finished in one quarter. A case with issues to resolve, foreign contacts to verify or a Statement of Reasons can run far longer, and a clean case can beat the average. Nothing here is a commitment about any individual case.
  • The underlying data has known problems. GAO found more than 60% of the FY2024 clearance data it reviewed, which ODNI uses to oversee the process, inaccurate or incomplete.

Where the time goes now

  • Adjudication remains the longest phase: 146 days for initial Secret and 158 for initial Top Secret in FY2026 Q4. The totals rose from 197/243 days in Q3 to 238/276 in Q4; the October briefing describes DCSA efforts to address adjudication delays.
  • The October briefing reports average investigation-only timeliness of 71 days for Tier 3 and 95 for Tier 5. These are phases of the process, not end-to-end clearance waiting times.
  • The September 30 investigation-inventory chart shows approximately 45,000 cases, including 19,000 initial-vetting cases and 26,000 continuous-vetting issue-resolution cases. Other agency-wide population totals are separate measures.
  • Historical targets and fastest-90% measures below retain their original source periods. They are not updated FY2026 Q4 averages.

Sources

  1. DCSA Industry Stakeholder Engagement, October 6, 2026, slides 4–5 — FY2026 Q4 all-case averages, phase breakdowns, investigation timeliness, and September 30 inventory.
  2. Performance Accountability Council, Trusted Workforce 2.0 Quarterly Progress Report, supplemental legacy metrics, FY2026-Q2 — investigation-phase targets, inventory, preliminary determinations and the government-wide fastest-90% figures.
  3. GAO-26-108838, Personnel Vetting (February 2026), and GAO-26-107100, Personnel Security Clearances (December 2025) — the 114-day goal, performance against it, and the data-reliability findings.

Questions these figures answer

How long does a Secret clearance take?

For cleared industry, an initial Secret case (Tier 3) took 238 days on average end to end in FY2026 Q4: 21 days of initiation, 71 days of investigation, 146 days of adjudication. DCSA counts every case that finished in the quarter, so a case with issues to resolve can take far longer, and a clean case can be quicker.

How long does a Top Secret clearance take?

For cleared industry, an initial Top Secret case (Tier 5) took 276 days on average end to end in FY2026 Q4: 23 days of initiation, 95 days of investigation, 158 days of adjudication. DCSA counts every case that finished in the quarter, so a case with issues to resolve can take far longer, and a clean case can be quicker.

Which part of the wait is the investigation?

DCSA’s average for the investigation it runs itself was 71 days for a Tier 3 case and 95 days for a Tier 5 case. Initiation by the sponsor and adjudication by the deciding authority make up the rest of the wait.

For a case in progress

Where the time goes, step by step

The request map covers a complete submission; DCSA returns incomplete ones for correction. The investigation and adjudication map covers what happens after it. For a question about one case, start with the DCSA support routes.

See the whole process →