It is mostly out of the recruiting center's hands what happens with the presecurity assessment. They are responsible, however, to initiate the beginning of the process: to make sure they run an Enhanced Reliability Check immediately after the CFAT, if you were successful with the CFAT. Once that comes back OK (about 1 week), they can input and send off your presecurity assessment. The latter is more indepth and you will be asked to fill out yet another form that is much lengthier than the ERC form. The lengthier form is supposed to be given to you to take home after the CFAT so you can get working on it. You then hand that one in, they input all the info, and send if off. What gets people caught up is the fact that, because there is so much information required, many times people make mistakes and leave things out. The information cannot be sent unless said information is corrected and inputed. This results in phone tag with the applicant that can last for months. When it is finally in the system and sent off, now it is out of the recruiting center's hands. It can take anywhere from 1-2 years up there. I think luck is at play if you get yours back in under a year.
I wouldn't blame the recruiting center, not that I assume you guys are. It is the policy that if you were out of country for more than 180 days, you are a presecurity assessment. That is the end of it, whether one likes it or not.
