<Li> National Agency Check with Local Agency Check and Credit Check (NACLC). An NACLC is required for a Secret, L, and CONFIDENTIAL access . (See: Background check) </Li> <Li> Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI). An SSBI is required for Top Secret, Q, and SCI access, and involves agents contacting employers, coworkers and other individuals . Standard elements include checks of employment; education; organization affiliations; local agencies; where the subject has lived, worked, or gone to school; and interviews with persons who know the individual . The investigation may include an NACLC on the candidate's spouse or cohabitant and any immediate family members who are U.S. citizens other than by birth or who are not U.S. citizens . </Li> <Li> Polygraph . Some agencies may require polygraph examinations . The most common examinations are Counter Intelligence (CI) and Full - Scope (Lifestyle) polygraphs . While a positive SSBI is sufficient for access to SCI - level information, polygraphs are routinely administered for "staff - like" access to particular agencies . </Li> <P> If issues of concern surface during any phase of security processing, coverage is expanded to resolve those issues . At lower levels, interim clearances may be issued to individuals who are presently under investigation, but who have passed some preliminary, automatic process . Such automatic processes include things such as credit checks, felony checks, and so on . An interim clearance may be denied (although the final clearance may still be granted) for having a large amount of debt, having a foreign spouse, for having admitted to seeing a doctor for a mental health condition, or for having admitted to other items of security concern (such as a criminal record or a history of drug use .). When security concerns arise for an individual, which could bar them from holding a security clearance, adjudicators may also look at the Whole - Person Concept as a source of potential mitigation so that the person may still be granted a security clearance . </P>

Who gives security clearance to white house staff