Tips for Completing Your Background Investigation Application in eAPP

The National Background Investigation System (NBIS) has been in the news quite a bit lately, and not in a good way. Congressional hearings, Inspector General reports, and even the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) itself, who owns the system, all acknowledge the continuing issues with NBIS despite being eight years in progress and having spent $600 million on it. One subsystem of NBIS is eAPP, which replaced e-QIP last year to process the applications for background investigations. It has also had its challenges with system outages, software updates that affect the ability to submit the eAPP to DCSA, and just being plain user unfriendly.

Despite the challenges, security professionals always seem to come up with ways to persevere and keep the process moving. Below are some tips in filling in the eAPP that will increase the chances of getting it submitted and not having it rejected back for corrections:

• Full legal names must be used. Middle initials are not acceptable if you have a middle name.
• Addresses: If your physical work address is different from the corporate HQ address for your employer, then make sure you are listing them separately.
• General Addresses: Provide complete addresses to include building or house number, street name, and zip code. DO NOT provide a Post Office Box for any address.
• School addresses: Do not list building names; addresses must include a street number & name.
• Employment Activities: Please select the correct employment type: Federal Contractor – only applies to employers who are contracted to the government. Self-Employment – only applies if you were working for your own business. Unemployment – applies if you were a student and not working and/or were a volunteer. Other – Select this option if no other options apply.
• Selective Service Record: If you are a male born after December 31, 1959 and do not know your Selective Service Number then go to https://www.sss.gov/verify/ to retrieve it.
• Military Service: All discharges are initially classified as Honorable, General, or Dishonorable in eAPP. Selecting a General discharge will allow you to further select whether the characterization was Under Honorable Conditions, Other Than Honorable Conditions, etc. If you do not see your discharge listed, leave a detailed comment describing your discharge and an explanation.