Agencies receive more than a million FOIA requests a year, a record 1.7 million in fiscal 2025, from journalists, businesses, researchers, lawyers, and ordinary people seeking their own files. FOIA has uncovered government waste, safety problems, and abuses, and it is one of the main tools for holding agencies accountable.
This guide explains how to make a request, what to expect, and what to do if an agency says no.
Nine exemptions allow withholding: classified national security information, internal personnel rules, information barred by other statutes, trade secrets, internal deliberations and legal advice, personal privacy, certain law enforcement records, bank supervision records, and oil well data. Since 2016 agencies may withhold only if they reasonably foresee harm from release. If records are withheld or redacted, you can file an administrative appeal, usually within 90 days. The Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives offers free mediation, and after an appeal or a missed deadline you can sue in federal district court, where the agency must justify its withholdings and may pay your attorney fees if you win.
FOIA, signed in 1966 and strengthened after Watergate in 1974, applies to records held by executive branch departments, agencies, and independent regulators, including emails, memos, reports, data, photographs, and recordings. It does not require agencies to answer questions or create new records, only to search for and release existing ones. Congress, the courts, and the parts of the White House that only advise the President are not covered, though presidential records become available through the National Archives years after a President leaves office. Each state has its own public records law for state and local governments.
To get records about yourself, such as an FBI file, immigration file, military record, or Social Security record, you can file under both FOIA and the Privacy Act of 1974, which also lets you ask agencies to correct inaccurate information. You will need to verify your identity, usually with a signed statement under penalty of perjury. Supporters of FOIA say it remains essential for accountability, while agencies and some critics note that commercial and repeat requesters consume much of the system's capacity and that backlogs reflect years of underfunding.
Check whether the records are already public. Agencies post frequently requested records in online reading rooms, and FOIA.gov, run by the Justice Department, lists every agency's FOIA office and lets you submit requests to many of them. Identify the right agency and, for large departments, the right component, such as the FBI within the Justice Department. A request sent to the wrong office may be forwarded, but often adds delay.
See the offices that police agencies in federal watchdogs, learn about protections for insiders in whistleblowers explained, or take part in rulemaking with how to comment on a regulation.