Civil Service pre-employment checks failed

I applied for an AO grade position at Home Office and was offered a provisional offer in November. The pre-employment checks have taken 4 months and I attended multiple ID checks already. Unfortunately, I received an email saying my pre-employment check was not satisfactory. It was a shock to me.

Some people on this forum said that applicants have to be living in the UK within the last 3 years as the role required CTC clearance. I checked the information in the advert which only stated that applicants NORMALLY lived in the UK in the last 3 years. Therefore I am wondering if there is any exception or negotiation ground on this issue. I am a British National who arrived in the UK in 2020.

Did you discuss this during the application process? This is probably why you failed. Either where you were living is not considered secure enough, or, if you'd discussed in advance they might have asked you to get police reports etc from wherever you were. Probably too late now though, they rarely go back on a fail decision, and the post(s) will likely have been filled.

Did you fail pre-employment checks as in Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), or did you fail security clearance? One come after the other, and they're done by different people.

For security clearance, when they say you NORMALLY have to have lived X out of X+1 years, the exceptions are if you (or your immediate family) were otherwise serving with HM Forces, Foreign Service etc. abroad. There are case by case exceptions to that, but you (through your sponsor) need to apply for and obtain specific and special exception for that. They're generally not going to bother / be able to do that.

It is a Counter-Terroist-Clearance check.

Hi, did any ever get back to you regarding an explanation as to why your checks failed. Where where you living before you came to the UK? For a CTC to be completed you need to have lived continually in the UK for a minimum off three years.

Did you discuss this during the application process? This is probably why you failed. Either where you were living is not considered secure enough, or, if you'd discussed in advance they might have asked you to get police reports etc from wherever you were. Probably too late now though, they rarely go back on a fail decision, and the post(s) will likely have been filled.

I received a general explanation of the 3 years requirement. But I also sent a follow-up email to ask about the possibility of exemption if I can provide further evidence. It is still unclear which party should be responsible for my inquiry. They kept forwarding to other departments to follow up.

I lived in Hong Kong before. I don't have much expectation on an exemption but will not know if I don't ask.

Will contacting the Recruitment Manager make any difference though as the check is done by a different government department (Government Recruitment Service)? I have a similar situation (at interview stage) where I do not have 3 years residency and was wondering if the exceptions are only for those who were serving for the armed forces, etc?

I applied for an AO grade position at Home Office and was offered a provisional offer in November. The pre-employment checks have taken 4 months and I attended multiple ID checks already. Unfortunately, I received an email saying my pre-employment check was not satisfactory. It was a shock to me.

Some people on this forum said that applicants have to be living in the UK within the last 3 years as the role required CTC clearance. I checked the information in the advert which only stated that applicants NORMALLY lived in the UK in the last 3 years. Therefore I am wondering if there is any exception or negotiation ground on this issue. I am a British National who arrived in the UK in 2020.

I received a general explanation of the 3 years requirement. But I also sent a follow-up email to ask about the possibility of exemption if I can provide further evidence. It is still unclear which party should be responsible for my inquiry. They kept forwarding to other departments to follow up.

I lived in Hong Kong before. I don't have much expectation on an exemption but will not know if I don't ask.

Also curious to know how this went.

What evidence do we need to provide that we have been in the UK for 3 years?

Will statements and transactions from an online bank (Revolut) do?

I've only recently applied for a UK bank account and registered to vote

hello fellow HKers
looks like it would be quite difficult for us to get into AO / EO grade jobs judging by OP's experience, understandably I might add
Did anyone succeed in BPSS?

I'm going to start at AA level and try to progress up
Hope I can get my BPSS and Criminal Record Check finished soon

I think BPSS is easier to pass. Good luck.

hello fellow HKers
looks like it would be quite difficult for us to get into AO / EO grade jobs judging by OP's experience, understandably I might add
Did anyone succeed in BPSS?