How long does a PV clearance last?

As a security clearance holder, you are required to:

• Maintain personal behaviour the general public would reasonably expect of someone who holds a position of public trust;
• Avoid the intake of excessive amounts of alcohol;
• Not take non-prescribed prescription or illegal recreational drugs;
• Advise AGSVA of changes in personal circumstances, including but not limited:
  • Change in relationship status
  • Criminal charges, warnings or convictions
  • Any incident that significantly affects your financial situation
  • Any incident that significantly affects your personal life or physical wellbeing
  • Contacts with foreign nationals if they are enduring or of substance
  • Contact with foreign intelligence officials or people you suspect may be foreign intelligence officials
  • Membership of associations
  • Change in religious or political beliefs*
• Keep up-to-date with requirements in relation to your security clearance
• Maintain a standard of behaviour that would ensure you continue to meet the requirements of holding a security clearance
• Cooperate with reviews of security clearance and undertake required security awareness training
• Protect classified matter (including adherence to the need-to-know principle)
• Report any suspicious or unusual occurrences in or around the workplace to your agency’s Security Officer/Advisor immediately
• Report all adverse changes in personality or suspicious behaviour displayed by work colleagues to your agency’s Security Officer/Advisor or AGSVA immediately
• Conduct yourself with honesty and integrity
• Act in accordance with laws, regulations, determinations and agreements that are applicable to the performance of your duties and the administrative and legal measures established to enhance accountability
• Comply at all times with any lawful and reasonable direction given by a person who has the authority to give it
• Perform duties with care, diligence and with adherence to relevant security requirements
• Use official information, equipment and facilities in a proper and secure manner
• Disclose correct personal information when it is required for official purposes
• Disclose and avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest, whether financial or otherwise
• Not take advantage of duties, access, status, power or authority to seek or obtain a benefit or to avoid a liability or penalty.

*Note: reportable changes in religious or political beliefs do not include identifying how you vote. However, they do include any changes in your political convictions that result in an allegiance or active support of or participation in any political cause. They also include major changes in religious philosophy (such as from Christian to Buddhist or Muslim to atheist).

All security clearances are required to be reviewed at regular intervals. The interval depends on the level of the security clearance as outlined at Table 1. AGSVA will advise you when your security clearance is due for review.

Table 1: Length of time required for reviewing a security clearance

AGSVA will email you when your periodic revalidation is due. You will be issued a clearance application and your revalidation will commence. Your Security Officer will also be notified when your revalidation due date is approaching.

It is important that AGSVA has your most current contact details. If AGSVA cannot contact you when your security clearance review is due, your security clearance may be cancelled. For this reason we recommend that you nominate a personal email for all AGSVA correspondence.

Holding a Positive Vetting (PV) security clearance requires you to complete an annual security appraisal, which addresses your compliance with general clearance obligations, including reporting changes in circumstances, security incidents, and completing security awareness training.

When you need to do an annual security check, AGSVA will ask you to nominate your supervisor and a personal referee. We will then request:

• Your supervisor to complete the form a Supervisor Annual Security Appraisal, and
• Your nominated personal referee to complete a Referee Annual Security Appraisal.

Your security advisor has the ability to upgrade, downgrade, or reactivate your security clearance, depending on the sponsoring agency’s requirements. 

Every security clearance needs to be sponsored by an Australian Government entity. If you change jobs and still need to hold a security clearance, it is in your interest to ensure your new employer registers their sponsorship of your clearance before your former employer removes sponsorship. Not doing so may result in your security clearance being cancelled due to not having a sponsor.