§5.5. Timing of responses to requests. — Inbound Citations

(2) A requester may send their request to the Privacy Office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, via the internet at https://www.dhs.gov/foia or for any of the Headquarters Offices of the Department of Homeland Security listed in Appendix A to Subpart 5, or https://www.foia.gov/. Upon request, DHS FOIA public liaisons may facilitate, in limited circumstances (e.g., incarceration), an alternative method to submit requests for requesters who are unable to submit electronic requests. Please direct such requests to the liaison of the Office or DHS Component you wish to seek records from, which can be found listed in Appendix A to Subpart 5 or found here: https://www.dhs.gov/foia-contact-information. In addition, if a requester does not know which DHS component may maintain responsive records to a request, the requester may explicitly ask for assistance from the DHS Privacy Office with identifying the proper component that most likely maintains any potential responsive records. Upon a request for assistance and based on information provided in the FOIA request and by the requester, the Privacy Office will forward the request to the DHS component(s) that it determines to be most likely, as of the date of the request for information, to maintain the records that are sought. The Privacy Office will notify the requester that it is forwarding the request, including identifying the component(s) where the request has been sent, provide the FOIA Public Liaison contact information for the respective component(s), and provide administrative appeal rights in the response. If the requester does not agree with the Privacy Office's determination regarding which components would likely have records responsive to the request, the requester must submit a timely appeal of the Privacy Office's determination. Although these are not to be considered misdirected requests, the recipient DHS component shall be granted the same number of days to respond as permitted by 6 CFR 5.4(c) and 5.5(a).

(c) Consistent with the procedures in subpart A to this part, a component will have twenty (20) working days from when a request is received to determine whether to grant or deny the request unless there are unusual or exceptional circumstances as defined by the FOIA and set out in § 5.5(c). Once a component decides to grant a request for access to record(s) in whole or in part, it will notify the requester in writing. The component will inform the requester in the notice of any fee charged under §§ 5.21(d) and 5.29 and will disclose records to the requester promptly upon payment of any applicable fee. The component will inform the requester of the availability of its FOIA Liaison to offer assistance.