FOIA Gen

The FOIA Gen inbox

In FOIA Gen, choose Inbox. Every message agencies send about this project's requests arrives here and is filed with its request. Each request is sent from its own address, so most replies match themselves; FOIA Gen also matches by the agency's tracking number and by who sent it.

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Your FOIA Gen Inbox3:21 video

When a reply is filed, FOIA Gen reads it, says what it means in plain English, and updates the request: its status (for example Acknowledged or Fee letter: needs you), its tracking number and its deadlines. Attachments go to Documents.

Which messages can change a request

Only a message from the agency itself can change a request's status, tracking number or deadlines. FOIA Gen counts a message as the agency's when it comes from the agency's own email domain, a government domain (such as .gov, .mil or a state's .us domain) or a known public-records portal.

A message from any other address, including a personal email or a law firm, is still filed with its request, read and explained, and its attachments are kept. It just doesn't move anything. The message itself says Not from a confirmed agency address, so this didn't change the request., in Messages and in the Inbox, and the request's History says why. This stops a mistaken or malicious email from closing a request or changing a deadline.

If an agency really did write from an outside address (for example a staff member's personal account), change the request's status yourself: press Change the status on the message (it opens the status control on the request's Overview), and add a note saying what the agency told you.

Messages are always shown as plain text. Links and formatting in an agency's email are never run.

Which request is this?

A message FOIA Gen can't match with confidence waits under Which request is this? instead of being guessed. Open it, choose the request it belongs to, and press Attach. It is then filed and read like any other reply.

Your forwarding address

Some agencies write to your own email instead. The card at the top of the Inbox shows your own FOIA Gen address. Forward those messages to it, and FOIA Gen files them with their request. Forward automatically shows the one-time steps to have Gmail or Outlook forward messages from government senders for you. Use the same address as the email on any agency portal account, so the portal's updates arrive here too.

Email alerts

The Email me card on the Inbox chooses which emails FOIA Gen sends you about the requests you wrote. It is your own setting, for this account.

Right away	The default. An email as soon as a request needs you: a fee letter, a question from the agency, a denial or partial release you can appeal, one of your deadlines two business days away, a deadline the agency missed, or a message at your forwarding address that waits under Which request is this?. Everything else comes in the daily digest.
Daily digest	One email a day at 8:00 in the morning, in the timezone in My Profile → Settings (UTC if none is set), listing what changed on your requests. There is no email on a day when nothing changed.
Off	No email. Everything still shows in FOIA Gen.

Each email names the request, gives the subject line of the agency's message and a one-line summary, and links to the request. The agency's message itself and its attachments stay in FOIA Gen. You stop getting alerts about a project you leave.

Viewers can read the inbox but can't attach messages, get a forwarding address or get email alerts.

Signed in to VeraGen? Press Guide me on any screen for a walkthrough, or ask Odin.