Looking for specifics on how to file an FOIA request to get my own passport records.

[crispini]

Based on the conversation Olbermann just had with the former State Department official, there's all kinds of stuff in there if you have lived overseas. I have, 2 years in the Peace Corps and a year in China. So, I want to know what's in my FILE. Anyone got any specifics about how I file an FOIA request and where, specifically, I file it?

Thanks! :toast:

[Hosnon]

1. Try this link:

http://www.state.gov/m/a/ips/

I would suggest including in the letter that no costs are to be incurred without your approval.

Edited for clarity.

[ThomWV]

3. Not much to it

You write a letter and describe in as much detail as possible what it is you want. Don't use a shotgun approach, try to pinpoint what documents you want. You have to specify that you're asking under the Freedom of Information Act, address it to that Office too. You have to offer to pay for the reasonable cost of finding and reproducing whatever it is you are seeking - but you can put a top end limit on it (I suggest $25). Then you can request that the cost of finding and reproducing be waived because you are a private citizen of limited means. In all the years I responded to them (about 1 a month) we never charged anyone for digging the stuff out and making copies of it - but that was then, this is now.

Anyway its not all that difficult. They will either honor it or they will not and nothing you can do is going to make any difference about that. Our Government has become arbitrary.

[LakeSamish706]

2. Am I wrong in thinking that I thought that Bush had nullified the FOIA? n/t