FOIA Request Template and Deadline Tracker

FOIA covers federal executive branch agencies, including independent regulators. State and local agencies answer to their state's public records law instead. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press compares those laws in its Open Government Guide¹.

Each agency processes its own records, and FOIA.gov says a request gets the quickest possible response² when sent straight to the FOIA office of the component holding them. Check the agency's website and FOIA.gov first, since the records may already be posted.

Not sure which office has them? Ask the agency's FOIA Public Liaison, whose job includes answering requesters' questions. If the records sit in two components, send two narrow requests rather than one broad one, each with its own deadline.

The law requires a request that reasonably describes³ the records. Agencies don't have to create new records, analyze data or answer questions², FOIA.gov says, so ask for documents and data that already exist.

Write for a records officer who has never heard of your story. Give a date range, the office, the people or companies involved, and any case number, contract number or system name you know. FOIA.gov notes that simple, targeted requests can be processed faster.

An agency must provide records in any form or format you request³ if they are readily reproducible that way. That duty covers only the format you asked for. Ask for "electronic copies" and a database can arrive as scanned printouts, which still meets your request and leaves no refusal to appeal.

So give the format its own numbered paragraph. Name the system, the fields and the file type, such as a CSV export for a database or email with headers and attachments intact. Ask for the data dictionary too, or build your own with a data dictionary template.

One caveat: under the Justice Department's fee rule, you pay the direct costs of scanning⁴ when paper records must be scanned to meet an electronic format request.

Fees depend on who you are and why you want the records, not on the topic. The news media category covers anyone who gathers information of potential interest to part of the public, edits it into a distinct work and distributes it. Freelancers qualify with a solid basis for expecting publication, such as a publication contract.

A fee waiver is a separate request with two tests, so argue both with facts. Disclosure must be likely to contribute significantly to public understanding³ of government operations or activities, and not primarily in your commercial interest. FOIA.gov notes that inability to pay is not a legal basis² for one.

Always state the most you will pay. Under the Justice Department's rule, if estimated fees top $25 and you haven't agreed to pay that much, your request is not considered received⁴. Work stops until you agree in writing to pay or name a limit.

The agency must decide within 20 days, excepting Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays³. Count from the first working day after the right office receives your request, skip the dates on OPM's federal holiday schedule⁵, and keep your submission confirmation as proof.

If another of the agency's FOIA offices gets your request first, its clock starts no later than 10 days after that office got it. The agency may pause the clock once to ask you for information, and as needed to clarify fees. Written notice of unusual circumstances, such as records in field offices, adds up to 10 working days.

Expect slippage. Agencies received a record 1,707,197 requests in fiscal year 2025⁶ and ended it with 339,671 pending past the legal time limit, the Justice Department reports.

Once a deadline passes without a decision, you are deemed to have exhausted your administrative remedies³, so you may sue. The agency also may not charge search fees, or copying fees to news media, educational and noncommercial scientific requesters.

A timely extension notice buys the agency 10 more days. On a request over 5,000 pages, it can still charge if it gave that notice and discussed narrowing with you, or made at least three good-faith attempts to.

Tie each follow-up to a date. If no acknowledgment comes within a week, ask for the tracking number and the date the office logged receipt. Agencies must also offer a phone line or website showing your estimated completion date. Records in the wrong format? Quote your format paragraph back and ask again.

Appeal any response you disagree with, such as a withholding, a "no records" answer or a fee decision. The agency must allow at least 90 days³ to appeal and must rule within 20 working days. Keep it narrow: agencies must release any reasonably segregable part of a record, so a page withheld in full is worth challenging.

FOIA.gov says an appeal is usually just a letter or email, and it costs nothing. The Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives also offers mediation as an alternative to litigation².

Once the records are in, the fact-check tool flags every checkable claim in your draft, and a policy brief template sets out options and who pays for each. To skip the date arithmetic, open the template on this page in River, which counts each deadline for you.