Reviewing a Copy of Your Background Investigation

Now that your background investigation was completed by OPM and favorably adjudicated by the DOD CAF, DSS, or another Federal agency, you can start work and forget about it until your next periodic update, right? Wrong! I always recommend requesting a copy of your completed background investigation so you have a reference for when and what you submitted previously and also so you can see what issues, if any were present.

If your investigation was done by OPM you can go here to find out information about how to request a copy. If done by another agency you will have to contact them for the procedures. Once you have gotten a copy of your Report of Investigation (ROI) take a look through it to see what was checked, who was contacted, and what information was provided back for the report. There are a few things on the Case Closing Transmittal (CCTS) that may be unfamiliar to you, so I have listed below some important things to look for:

Closed Date: This is the date that your investigation was completed and the date you should use when listing previous investigations on your next update.

Case Type: This is the type/level of background investigation that was completed (e.g., T1, T2, T3, T4, T5)

OPM Assessment: This code designates the seriousness of issues (if any) that were present in the ROI. For instance, if there were indications of falsification or dishonesty then it would designated as a major issue case. The types of codes and what they mean are for adjudicators and are not publicly releasable. It is important to note that this is only OPM’s initial assessment, not the assessment by agency adjudication team who will review the entire ROI, apply mitigation, and then make a final determination.

Item Information: This is a list of all the different checks that were scheduled for completion, their status, and the results. These codes are also not publicly releasable.

The rest of the report consists of the SF application form you submitted, the OF-306, resume’ (if applicable), and investigative narratives/results of all of the completed items listed on the CCTS. You may be surprised by what sources know or don’t know about you and more likely than not, there may be minor discrepancies in their information. This is perfectly normal as very few sources know everything about you or speculate about things they may have heard from others. However, unless the information is malicious or totally false, you shouldn’t worry about it. If there is information that you feel should be amended, then follow the Amendment of Records procedures posted on OPM’s site provided above.