Statement of Reasons (SOR) – What should you do if you get a SOR to revoke or deny your security clearance?

Submitted by the Bond & Botes Law Offices - Friday, July 7, 2023

By Ronald C. Sykstus

If get a Statement of Reasons (SOR) from the government that says it wants to revoke or deny your security clearance, this is a serious matter that requires immediate attention. Without a clearance and if your employer does not have any available non-classified work for you to do, then a revocation or denial of a security clearance will result in the loss of the job.

With that said, if you do receive a SOR, don’t panic. Take a beat and collect yourself. You do have options and rights in order to defend yourself. As an aside, don’t discuss your worries or the government’s concerns with anyone. See the top ten clearance issues and problems blog post at the bottom of this page.

Immediately find out what the due date is for you to respond to the SOR. This is very important and make sure you do NOT miss the deadline to respond.

If you have a clearance and the government is moving to revoke it or if you have been working non-classified, you should still be able to do your current work even while a SOR is pending.

At all costs, do whatever you have to do to remain “sponsored” for your clearance by your current employer. If sponsorship is lost, then you will remain in a clearance purgatory of sorts, and you will not be able to move forward with the process. Worse, you will have an issue anytime you apply for a new job that requires a clearance since the “new” employer will see that there is an issue with your current clearance.

With that said, DO NOT apply for any other clearance related job while this process is ongoing, even if it takes a year or longer. I have seen several situations where individuals tried to do that and left the “sponsored” job for a new one and then the new company did not want to wait for the clearance issue to be resolved and the person is then terminated. At that point, you will be in clearance purgatory, as mentioned above.

In your original SOR packet that you received from the government, there will be a form titled “DOHA (Department of Hearings and Appeals) Decision Form.” You will need to complete that form and submit that along with your separate detailed response to the statement of reasons. With the decision form, I strongly recommend that you check the first box that requests a hearing before an administrative judge. Under no circumstances would I ever recommend to someone to have their case decided in written form only. Going that route, to me, is a virtual guarantee of a clearance revocation or denial. The best chance that any security clearance applicant has, if he or she reaches this stage and receives a SOR, is to request a hearing before an administrative judge.

You will then need to draft a detailed response to the SOR. Per the instructions, you will need to either admit or deny all of the allegations from the government. You need to respond to each and every allegation. Make sure you add in a lot of detail and mitigation as to whatever the circumstances are. Also, make sure you have a prepared defense and explanation as to what the allegations are and what you have done to overcome these issues and, importantly, to ensure that these concerns will be remedied and alleviated to the governments satisfaction so that you are in no way a risk to national security. Please also remember that anything and everything you put in the answer to the SOR will be available to the Judge and government lawyer from DOHA so make sure that everything you say in your response is exactly correct.

If you receive a Statement of Reasons (SOR), please reach out to me immediately BEFORE you prepare and submit your answer to the SOR. A consultation with me is protected under the attorney-client privilege and only you and I will know what we discuss. I will work with you to help you prepare your answer to the SOR and put the government’s concerns to rest in the best possible light.

Also, if you are early in the clearance process, and you are at the stage of having to complete an initial or renewal SF 86 form through e-Qip, and you have questions or concerns about how to disclose previous issues in your life, please reach out to me immediately BEFORE you answer those questions. A consultation with me is protected under the attorney-client privilege and only you and I will know what we discuss. To that end, I strongly recommend that you do not discuss any security concerns with your chain of command, civilian supervisors, or anyone else since, reporting any type of potential issue to anyone else, may require them to forward that information along to the facility security officer. Before you decide to do anything like that, and if you think you have an issue that needs to be disclosed either on the SF 86 form or by self-reporting, let’s discuss it first before you do anything in a meeting (by phone or in person) protected by the attorney-client privilege so that we know exactly what all of the issues are and we can ensure that, together, we can control the narrative of exactly what you are reporting or answering. Please feel free to contact me by phone or text at 256-713-0221 or by email at rsykstus@bondnbotes.com if you would like to discuss any concerns that you have regarding your clearance. My goal is to put any security clearance issue and concern that you may have to rest at the earliest and lowest possible level.