LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > FOIA request by fax
Yes. Most federal agencies publish a FOIA fax number alongside their mailing address and online portal, and a faxed request counts as a written request under the law. The letter must state it is made under the Freedom of Information Act and describe the records you want.
| Element | Why it matters | Example wording |
|---|---|---|
| The FOIA invocation | Without it, your letter may be treated as ordinary correspondence | "This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. section 552" |
| Record description | The agency searches what you describe; vague requests get delayed or rejected | "All emails between the Office of the Director and contractor X from January to June of this year" |
| Your contact details | The agency needs somewhere to send the response | Name, mailing address, phone, and email |
| Fee category and willingness | Processing fees are waived for news media, educators, and non-commercial requesters under fee rules | "I am a news media requester and request a fee waiver; if not granted I will pay up to a stated amount" |
Every federal agency runs a FOIA office with published contact details, including a fax number in most cases. Start at the agency's own FOIA page, or at foia.gov, which lists agency contacts. Do not fax to the agency's general fax line: FOIA offices log and track requests from the day they arrive, and a request that lands in a general office's machine may never be logged. Put "FOIA Request" in the subject line of the letter and on the cover sheet, address it to the FOIA Officer by name if one is listed, and confirm the fax number on the agency's site the same day you send: numbers change, and FOIA pages get restructured.
The government-wide FOIA portal works well, but fax has two stubborn advantages. First, it produces a confirmation page with a timestamp: FOIA response deadlines run from when the agency receives the request, so proof of receipt matters if the agency later claims it never got your letter. Second, faxing bypasses the portal entirely when the portal is down, when you are filing against an agency whose portal profile is thin, or when you are attaching material the portal handles poorly. Note this guide covers faxing; mailing a FOIA request by certified mail is covered in the sibling guide on FOIA requests by mail, and that route gives you signed delivery proof instead of a fax confirmation.
Specificity. The agencies deny or stall requests that ask for "everything about" a topic, because the law lets them reject requests that are not reasonably described. Name the offices, the people, the date ranges, and the record types: emails, memos, contracts, meeting notes. A one-paragraph request that says "the contract between the agency and vendor X signed in March, plus any amendments" will be processed; a one-line request for "all documents about the project" will sit. Also expect redactions: FOIA has exemptions (national security, personal privacy, law enforcement, and others), and a successful request is often one where you narrow the scope to records likely to survive those exemptions.
LetterAgent can send your fax if the agency's FOIA fax line is a US number. You describe the fax to your AI assistant, get a per-fax quote with the page count verified, approve the exact total, and pay once through Stripe. The fax feature is currently in testing, so it is not promised to be available for any particular send, and faxes are outbound only: there is no inbound number to receive the agency's response.
Ready to fax it? Fax with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com