I’ve filled this form out, multiple times. All contractors who work with a government agency that requires even the lowest Public Trust clearance will go through this form.

It asks for all kinds of information. Your legal name, your aliases you’ve used (nicknames, or shortened names), immediate family member names (including parents and siblings) and addresses, past addresses you’ve lived at in X years and who can verify that address, whether you’re divorced and how to contact that divorcee, all the countries you have traveled to in the past 5 or 6 years and when, and previous employers, timeframes and why you left them.

It is a lot, typically can take all day. And if they lose that paperwork, you have to fill it out again. After filling it out, they do a preliminary background check to make sure no apparent red flags and you can start whatever project you were told to fill out this form for, which can take months.

Then they assign case workers to do a deeper investigation, depending on the clearance level. That ex-partner you lived with? They may get a phone call or a packet in the mail asking about you. That employer that fired you? Same thing. You might have to do an interview to address inconsistencies (because there always will be in this ridiculous form you have to fill out).

But once you get that clearance… You are coveted by any private company that needs clearanced contractors. Sure, you’ll have to go through the process all over again with another government agency, but a company knowing you were clearable makes it easier for them to hire you.

All of this to say that yeah, the form is as horrible as it sounds.