I am happy to post that this week I finally got my security clearance, apparently cleared suitability, and am now on the Foreign Service Specialist Register as a Medical Provider.

I woke up in the wee hours of the morning on January 12th to find an email from REGISTRAR, in bold letters, congratulating me on making it on said register. This came as quite the shock as for the last several months, including January, I received a blanket email from State on the 1st of each month, telling me I was yet to get my security clearance. Imagine my shock just 12 days later to not only learn I had been cleared, but also somehow jumped past suitability.

Having quickly gotten through suitability comes as the biggest shock to me as I know of a couple other folks that got their security clearance faster than me, but seem to still be stuck at suitability. Reddit is full of stories like this, so my situation isn’t too uncommon, but it nevertheless is quite surprising.

They tell you if you rank in the top, middle, or lower 3rd of register candidates, and I fortunately find myself in the top 3rd. This is sort of surprising given my mediocre OA score of 5.6, but I have a feeling the register itself is pretty thin to begin with given the scarcity of our specialty, (and just about anyone I’ve spoken to with MED has told me) the register is cleaned regularly since it is sparsely populated.

Now the real wait begins. An invitation to orientation and officially work for the State Department could come at anytime (or not at all). January 12th started an 18 month countdown for an official offer to occur, and if one doesn’t happen, I will find myself off the register (timed out), and would have to start all over again. Realistically, it seems that is quite unlikely, and I would be surprised to not get an invite in the next few months. Invites for the April class have already gone out and could technically still come, but to be honest, I really hope to find myself in the July or September class. I have to give 90 days notice to my current employer, so would really appreciate some good lead time.

Thanks again to the few of you that have found your way here. I’m pumped to finally report something positive and hope the good news keeps coming.

Nick