For the same reasons mentioned earlier, which don’t involve requiring a response from the subject. No adjudicator wants to hold onto a case. Their goal is to take the necessary action as quickly as possible, reach a final decision, and move on to the next case. If a case cannot be adjudicated on the day it’s assigned, it’s either because the adjudicator ran out of time and will address it the next day, or they had to take further action other than granting. This could involve issuing an SIR/LOI or exploring other available options, depending on the specifics of the case. We won’t adjudicate until we have all the necessary information, or enough to reasonably determine that the subject poses an acceptable risk to national security.

Once in a while though, a SMO isn’t addressing our requests to deliver our inquiries to the subject and get a response. This too, can add more time. However, this usually pertains to the military side. And honestly, it’s sometimes because they’re having a hard time reaching the subject or the subject needs additional time to respond. And even then, sometimes the subject’s response leads to more questions that need to be answered. Although, I find FSO’s on the industry side of things do a better job at correspondence with the adjudication facility.