Maintaining UK SC Security clearance eligibilty abroad

Hi,

As you all know the UK jobs market and vacancies are dominated by

SC Security Clearance jobs. Mainly because these are the only jobs

that ( try as they may ) they simply cannot outsource or off shore

abroad.

Obviously my enquiry is directed at fellow Contractors like myself

who while sampling the delights and pay from a sojourn to Switzerland.

Don ́t want to pay the price of losing their eligibility for an SC job

whether Contract or Permanent upon their return to the UK.

Obviously I ́ve done some homework on the subject and emailed the

FCO Vetting Office on the subject and their reply was:

As a guide, you are required to have a footprint in the UK for a five

year period, within that time you must be resident in the UK for two

years, of which twelve months must be consecutive.

Okay, seems clear enough but how do you guys in Switzerland

work out the practicalities of accomplishing this feat.

1. I suppose rule number one is - maintain non residency status for

as long as possible or stick to a max of 6 months contracts abroad.

2. Don ́t fill in HMRC form P85 that your going abroad, if you can get

away with it.

3. Don ́t tell the NHS that your abroad and make do with E111 for as

long as you can legally get away with it.

4. Maintain your UK residence, mortgaged house in the UK, bank account

credit cards, in fact all the things that the Credit Reference Agencies, like

Experian can check up on.

5. Fly home, as often as you can afford it. If your a fanatical footie

supporter, you obviously want to attend all those home matches.

Keep reciepts of airline tickets, ferrry tickets to say, yes I still meet

the HMRC residency criteria.

Hopefully your efforts will pay off divi ́s one day with a nice SC Security

cleared contract or permanent job, if your returning to the UK to

settle down again.

Even if the GCHQ's spying apparatus is only fraction of what it is cracked up to be, then this post has already condemned you

If you have to pay UK tax, it's going to make living & working in CH a bad deal.

UK jobs market dominated by SC Security Clearance jobs? Really! Must be the Amercians in disguise hiring British to do their spying for them.

So you’re suggesting people a) lie to HMRC and b) lie to the NHS. Don’t think I’d want to trust my security to someone who breaks the law.

Didn't know Daniel Craig was giving up his day job.

If these guys are even remotely good at what they do, they should easily have you flagged up in no time! These guy have been playing the game a lot longer than you, so my money is on them!

Just stumbled across this thread while investigating the same subject.

It's ironic that you can leave the UK to work in a project in Europe, including Switzerland and obtain security clearance in that country. You can even work on a joint project such as Eurofighter Typhoon, shared between UK and other countries. You can visit UK companies and be looked up in their systems as cleared.

Then when you try and actually return to the UK to work, no one will touch you because UK SC clearance requires 5 years residence in the UK. You can't even return and work on the same project you are currently working on.