How to File a FOIA Request: Agencies, Fees, and Timelines

To file a FOIA request, send a written request to the federal agency you believe holds the records, describe what you want with enough specificity for staff to find it, state your fee category (and any fee waiver request), and provide your contact information. There is no required form, most agencies accept requests through an online portal or email, and the agency has 20 business days to make an initial determination on whether it will release the records.¹ The rest is detail, and the detail matters.

Who Can File, and What FOIA Covers

Anyone can file. You do not have to be a U.S. citizen, you do not have to explain why you want the records, and corporations, nonprofits, foreign nationals, and informal groups can all submit requests.²

FOIA reaches federal executive branch agencies: cabinet departments, military departments, government corporations, independent regulatory agencies, and the Executive Office of the President.¹ It does not reach Congress or the federal courts, and it does not reach state or local governments. Each state has its own public records law with different rules and timelines, so requests for non-federal records go through those separate systems.

Check the Agency’s Reading Room First

Before drafting anything, look at what the agency has already posted. FOIA requires each agency to maintain an electronic reading room containing final adjudicated opinions, policy statements, staff manuals that affect the public, and any records already requested three or more times.¹ Agencies also post frequently requested records on their own sites and on FOIA.gov. If what you need is already online, you save weeks.

Find the Right Agency and Component

FOIA processing is decentralized. Each agency handles its own requests, and many large agencies process at the component level, meaning a request to the Department of Justice may need to go specifically to the FBI, the DEA, or another sub-office.³ A misrouted request delays everything. If you cannot tell which component holds the records, the agency’s FOIA page or its FOIA Public Liaison can point you to the right desk.

Write the Request So It Can Be Processed

Your request must reasonably describe the records so agency staff can locate them without an unreasonable search.² Specific dates, names, offices, and subject matter help. A request phrased as “all emails between the FDA Commissioner and Pfizer from January through March 2025 regarding drug X” will be processed. A request phrased as “anything the FDA has about pharmaceutical companies” will likely be bounced as too vague.

A workable request includes:

A clear description of the records, with dates, names, and subjects where you have them.
Your contact information.
Your requester fee category.
Any fee waiver request, with a brief explanation of why you qualify.
Any request for expedited processing, with the required certification if you are asking for it.

How to Submit It

Most agencies accept requests through their own web portals, by email, or by fax.⁴ FOIA.gov also offers a central submission tool that routes to participating agencies. There is no required form: a clear letter or email is enough.

Fees and Fee Waivers

What you pay depends on your requester category. State your category in the request; if you leave it blank, the agency will assign one from the information available.⁵

Commercial requesters pay for search time, document review, and copying.
Educational or scientific institutions pay only for copying, with the first 100 pages free.
News media representatives are treated the same as educational requesters: copying only, first 100 pages free.
Everyone else pays for search time and copying, but typically gets two free hours of search and 100 free pages.

You can also ask for a fee waiver. The standard is that disclosure must be likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations, and your request must not be primarily commercial.⁵ Agencies weigh whether the records concern government activities, whether disclosure would be meaningfully informative, whether a broad public audience would benefit, and whether any commercial interest outweighs the public interest. A denial of a fee waiver is itself an adverse determination you can appeal.

How Long It Takes

An agency has 20 business days to make an initial determination once the correct component receives your request, and in any event no later than 10 days after any part of the agency first gets it.¹ The agency can pause the clock once to ask you for clarification or to resolve fee issues; the pause ends when you respond.

The 20 days can be extended by up to 10 additional working days in “unusual circumstances,” which the statute limits to three: records stored at a separate facility, a request covering a large volume of distinct records, or the need to consult with another agency or component.¹

Many agencies also use a multi-track system. Straightforward requests go into a simple queue and get answered faster; complex ones sit in a slower queue. A narrow, well-targeted request often moves much faster than a broad one filed the same day.

Asking for Expedited Processing

If you need the records urgently, you can ask the agency to move your request to the front of the line. The agency has 10 calendar days to decide whether to grant expedited treatment.¹ To qualify, you must show a “compelling need,” which the statute limits to two situations:

A delay could reasonably be expected to endanger someone’s life or physical safety.
You are primarily in the business of disseminating information and there is an urgent need to inform the public about actual or alleged government activity.

You must submit a certified statement attesting that your claim is true and correct to the best of your knowledge.¹ Some agencies grant expedited processing on additional discretionary grounds, such as requests involving a potential loss of due process rights or matters of exceptional media interest that raise questions about the government’s integrity.⁶ A denial of expedited processing can be appealed or challenged in court.

What Agencies Can Withhold

FOIA starts from a presumption of disclosure, and nine narrow exemptions allow withholding. Even when an exemption technically applies, an agency may withhold only if it reasonably foresees that release would cause specific harm to the interest the exemption protects, or if another statute flatly prohibits disclosure.⁷

The nine exemptions cover:¹

Classified national security information.
Purely internal personnel rules and housekeeping matters.
Information another federal statute specifically requires to be kept from the public.
Trade secrets and privileged or confidential commercial or financial information obtained from a person.
Internal pre-decisional deliberations, which would not normally be available in litigation. This exemption expires for records more than 25 years old.
Personnel, medical, and similar files where disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
Law enforcement records, but only where release would interfere with proceedings, deprive someone of a fair trial, reveal a confidential source, disclose investigative techniques, or endanger safety.
Reports prepared by or for agencies that regulate financial institutions.
Geological and geophysical information about wells.

When part of a record is exempt, the agency must release the rest unless the non-exempt portions are so entangled with exempt material that separation is impossible. Redacted pages are common, and each redaction should cite the exemption used.

In rare cases, an agency will refuse to confirm or deny that responsive records exist at all. This is called a Glomar response and must be tied to a specific exemption, most often national security, law enforcement privacy, or a statutory nondisclosure provision.⁸

If You Are Requesting Your Own Records

When you ask for files that agencies hold about you personally, such as immigration records or investigative files with your name on them, the Privacy Act of 1974 works alongside FOIA. Agencies process first-party requests under both statutes at once, and information can only be withheld if both a Privacy Act exemption and a FOIA exemption apply to the same material.⁹ Cite both laws in your request so you do not narrow your own rights by accident.

If the Agency Says No, or Says Nothing

If the agency denies your request, withholds more than you expected, rejects a fee waiver, or refuses expedited processing, you can file an administrative appeal within the agency. The statute requires agencies to give you at least 90 days from the date of the adverse determination to appeal.¹ A higher authority within the agency then reviews the decision from scratch and has 20 business days to rule.¹⁰ You can appeal outright denials as well as “no records” responses, inadequate searches, disputed fees, and denials of expedited treatment.¹¹

At any point, you can also ask the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives to mediate. OGIS is a neutral broker between requesters and agencies, and using it does not waive your right to appeal or sue.¹²

If the appeal is denied, or if the agency never responds within the statutory deadline, you can sue in federal district court. The statute gives you four venue choices: where you live, where your principal place of business is, where the records are kept, or the District of Columbia.¹ If the agency misses the 20-day deadline entirely, you do not have to wait for an appeal to run its course; the courts treat the missed deadline as constructive exhaustion, and you can go straight to court.¹³

In court, the judge reviews the withholding decision de novo rather than deferring to the agency, and the agency carries the burden of justifying every redaction.¹⁰ Requesters who substantially prevail may be awarded reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs, though fee awards are discretionary.¹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 U.S.C. 552 – Public Information; Agency Rules, Opinions, Orders, Records, and Proceedings
2
FOIA.gov. Freedom of Information Act Frequently Asked Questions
3
FOIA.gov. About the Freedom of Information Act
4
FOIA.gov. Freedom of Information Act: How to Make a FOIA Request
5
FinCEN.gov. FOIA Fees and Fee Waivers
6
Office of Information Policy. Ensuring Timely Determinations on Requests for Expedited Processing
7
Department of Justice. OIP Guidance: Applying a Presumption of Openness and the Foreseeable Harm Standard
8
Department of Justice. FOIA Guidance and Resources: Court Decisions: Glomar
9
Department of Justice. OIP Guidance: The Interface Between the FOIA and Privacy Act
10
Department of Justice. OIP Guidance: Adjudicating Administrative Appeals Under the FOIA
11
Department of Justice. Administrative Appeals
12
National Archives. Mediation Program
13
Department of Justice. FOIA Guidance and Resources: Court Decisions: Exhaustion