The BI starts as soon as the forms are submitted. Typically one of the first things they check is your financial status by soft pulling your credit history. You can see evidence of this by requesting a credit report from Equifax, TransUnion, Experian and then searching for a soft pull by the DoD. Other than this you have no way of knowing where you are in the BI process until you get a call from your BI to schedule meetups with you and your references. Usually after your BI is completed you are then contacted to schedule your Poly/Psych but there are cases where the reverse is true. For the majority of the process we are left in the dark regarding our progress so you just gotta hang in there :)

Typically, less foreign travel/contacts means a faster process. Best case scenario is you don't have much work experience (fresh out of school),are a homebody, no out of country travel, and no foreign relatives since that means there won't be much to look into.

Ohh I see now, hopefully the BI will be done by the end of this year. Thanks for the feedback.

You aren’t by chance going into a development program were you? I ask as that is what I am doing and I have my poly next week.

I am going into a development program and will be doing my poly around that time as well! Hopefully the rest of our timelines will be as quick as 0x41

No, I have a bachelors in Computer Networking and Security.

For those that took the poly, how soon were you notified if you “passed” or “failed”?

They don't use failed. They use inconclusive and they will usually tell you that.

You don't get a "pass." I was asked a few questions afterward, "Would you uphold no drug use while holding a clearance" and asked to notify them of any foreign travel as well as not having any foreign national friends without reporting them.

Probably depends on how the examiner does their thing but that's how mine went and I only took one and was notified a week later that I was cleared and ready for hire. FJO was told it would be inbound and asked what date I'd like to start based on the dates they provided me.

One doesn't really pass or fail a poly, it's a tool that measures physiological responses to questions and supplements personnel security and investigations.

If your polygraph operator doesn't give you a passing score, you'll know it before you leave the room because you'll be treated to a post-test interrogation. This is standard procedure for federal agencies with polygraph programs, including NSA.

In general, polygraph operators won't tell you that you passed. They'll leave you uncertain about the outcome. But if you don't get a post-test interrogation, that is a very good sign.

I was told that I passed as soon as the test was done.