IRAP Publishes Government Documents on Getting Crucial Information on Your Files Through FOIA

Individuals with potential immigration applications or cases in immigration court need to have the most accurate information possible on their immigration history. Because immigration files on individuals can span decades and often consist of hundreds or thousands of pages housed within different federal agencies, they often need to request copies of files through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Though FOIA is designed to allow the public access to records kept by the government quickly and efficiently, agencies’ delay and lack of compliance have long been a source of frustration, including for noncitizens seeking access to their records for immigration purposes.

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) recently published records it obtained through FOIA and through litigation related to the processing of FOIA requests by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Department of State (DOS).

The documents obtained by IRAP included important findings for those seeking records from immigration agencies:

• USCIS generally houses an I-130 petition in the file of the beneficiary, not the petitioner.
• USCIS generally considers certain documents, including I-130 petitioners, I-131 applications, and I-765 applications as being “stand-alone” filings which will not be kept in the “A-file.” FOIA requests for the A-file will therefore not include such filings and requesters will need to request all documents showing the subject’s name or will need to request those applications separately.
• Requests for copies of applications or petitions will not by default produce related records or supporting documents. Requests should explicitly ask for related records and supporting documents to get fuller disclosures.
• DOS will generally only provide records to a FOIA requester if the record was originally produced by that requester. As published by IRAP, DOS refers to a “Releasable Documents Chart” which tells FOIA processers when records in DOS files can be released to a petitioner, a visa applicant, or both.

Having a complete understanding of a noncitizen’s immigration history is crucial to assessing challenges to deportability or inadmissibility and in preparing applications for immigration benefits. Kudos to IRAP for its resolve to obtain and to publish these records, which immediately become an indispensable resource for crafting FOIA requests, appealing insufficient agency productions, and in FOIA-related immigration.