From what I understand it depends on the level of clearance. My wife had to fill one out for her last job, took almost 9 months to finally get clearance, however they never talked to anyone we know. When my little brother got his to work for Lockheed Martin, they were walking the streets were he lived talking to neighbors. It wasn’t till after he was approved that he found out the neighbors had him confused for his roommate, thankfully they are both good kids! and nobody could bad mouth them…
be glad your not going for a TS…and dont lie it will look better if you tell the truth than to not fill it in
also every 3 tears you will need to udate your clearance or it will get downgraded
Make sure to make a copy so you don’t have to figure everything out again when it’s time to renew it.
this is the way it worked for mine. Secret level was a bunch of paperwork, but no phone calls to my references. TS was the face to face interviews with your references. Freaked my mom out when a “men-in-black” looking agent showed up to our fairly rural house.