FOIA Advisor

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Q&A: Winter, spring, summer, or fall . . . all you've got to do is call

Q.   I have been a U.S. citizen for approximately 50 years, yes 50 years!!! I lost my naturalization papers which I need in order to get another hard copy of my SS card, which I also lost.  I was told by the USCIS office to submit a foia request while waiting for my papers and should not take longer than 30 days. It has now been 60 days and I am still on number 4 of 10 when I check the status.  Last week I was 3 of 10, but when I checked again the end of the week I had gone down to 4.  EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!! There is a state of urgency no one appears to care about. I don't want a copy to frame and hang on my wall, I need it to work!!!! How can I communicate with an actual person in that department??!!!

A.  The contact information for the FOIA Public Liaison of the United Stated Citizenship and Immigrations Services is as follows: 

National Records Center, FOIA/PA Office
P. O. Box 648010
Lee's Summit, MO. 64064-8010
FOIA Officer/Public Liaison: Jill Eggleston
Phone: 1-800-375-5283 (USCIS National Customer Service Unit)
Fax: 816-350-5785
E-mail: uscis.foia@uscis.dhs.gov

I note in this context that FOIA backlog at USCIS was significant enough to trigger a putative class action lawsuit in 2015.