[Hulka]

Not exactly.

You are specifically asked if you have loyalties to another government/person/organization, and dual citizenship would indicate you do.

Access to classified information is limited, obviously, and even non-classified information or technology that is restricted due to ITAR is witheld from you, a dual national.

Being married to a foreign national is not an automatic disqualifier. It does make the adjudication process more complicated, as the threat to you is greatly enhanced: Say your wife has relatives in an unfriendly (or even “friendly”) country, and that country threatens the relatives unless YOU give up information. See? You may likely not divulge information, but granting someone a clearance with that possibility must be seriously examined. Being naturalized makes you an American citizen, you have taken the oath. Now, like before, you may be subject to blackmail/threats, so the adjudication process must be carefully done.

Hope that helps.

[RegulatorCountry]

Why is security clearance so much less stringent, for those working on code for certain defense systems, then? We’ve been hearing, for years, about problems with Chinese programmers in that area.

[Eye of Unk]

Not exactly. You are specifically asked if you have loyalties to another government/person/organization, and dual citizenship would indicate you do. Access to classified information is limited, obviously, and even non-classified information or technology that is restricted due to ITAR is witheld from you, a dual national. Being married to a foreign national is not an automatic disqualifier. It does make the adjudication process more complicated, as the threat to you is greatly enhanced: Say your wife has relatives in an unfriendly (or even “friendly”) country, and that country threatens the relatives unless YOU give up information. See? You may likely not divulge information, but granting someone a clearance with that possibility must be seriously examined. Being naturalized makes you an American citizen, you have taken the oath. Now, like before, you may be subject to blackmail/threats, so the adjudication process must be carefully done. Hope that helps. Lets suppose a country like India or Israel threatens to send a nuclear missile to Mecca right now during the pilgrimage, how would Obama react? I dare to think his reaction would be based upon his Islamic upbringing. Or conversely what if Iran destroyed Israel? Would Obama retaliate?

[Yaelle]

Right. I do understand. I guess I’ll have to give up any hope of a top security clearance because I do have relatives elsewhere. Shucks.

I think we all knew that Obama could not get a security clearance anyway, with all his Kenyan relatives as well as his buddies who like to blow up things.