Originally Posted by
mbstone
First of all, be happy that you are being offered the chance to apply for a clearance. They are worth substantial amounts of extra salary in the DC area job marketplace. Also, you are filling out the form at a young age and presumably you have not had any significant life events that would hurt your chances.
The federal government officially claims travel is broadening, which it is, and officially encourages clearance holders to travel. The reality is that you could receive some amount of hassle for travelling of which having to fill out forms could be only the beginning. Depending on what country, what government agency, and what clearance level you have, you could have to report foreign travel after the fact, or even get permission before the fact.
Ask your Facility Security Officer about "mileage runs" and see what he or she says and get back to us.
Spot on! It all comes down to the agency/projects you're working on. I've been on some that "strongly discouraged" OCONUS travel (yeah, even USVI, PR or Hawaii
) and there have been others where the controlling agency didn't much care about day trips to Canada or Mexico. A few however were verrrry specific: Canada? Well they didn't really count
EU? okay. Asia? Depends...Japan was okay, Hong Kong (pre-China) was okay, China was a big fat NO!
I've got a cruise next year and one of the ports of call is Columbia. Just for the afternoon but let me tell you, I turned in the itinerary details NOW and Security is hashing it out... I don't forsee a problem but anything can happen in a year.
MRs are not as esoteric as they used to be but those overnight deals may still put off some of the more conservative agencies. You know, the ones who don't keep up with pop culture enough to know that $300 for jeans or a 4 hour layover at LHR for a quick hop across the pond and back aren't that unusual. Definately inform your FSO of your penchant for travel and start a dialogue about MRs including the fact that some folks will indeed fly to the EU for < 8 hours if the Fare Mistake & Mileage Gods are in a favoring mood.