Your federal file.
One order away.
Want to know what the federal government has on file about you? One order — Sammy prepares and files FOIA & Privacy Act requests to eight federal agencies, every response tracked in your dashboard. Filing yourself is always free (FOIA.gov shows how); the fee buys the work — done right, filed immediately, chased until answered.
Its own tool
Lives beside your broker takedowns in the app — a separate function for federal records. Same account, free tier, no subscription needed.
Filed for you
You approve one order; Sammy prepares all eight, files six as your authorized agent, and guides you through the DHS & CBP portals. Your submissions transmit immediately — the wait after that is the government’s.
Priced upfront
$49.99, one-time — all eight agencies. Doing it yourself is free; the fee buys the labor: paperwork prepared correctly the first time, filed through each agency’s required channel, tracked, chased. Agency fees are capped at $25 without your OK — and for personal requests, agencies almost never charge at all.
Included federal agencies
Sammy files six for you — FBI, DEA, IRS, DOJ, FTC, CFPB — and prepares and guides DHS and CBP, which federal rules route through their own portals. The full roster is shown in the app before you approve anything.
Rolling out: full agent-filing for DHS and CBP — one e-signed authorization and Sammy files those too. Until then: prepared by Sammy, final submit guided. See why DHS & CBP work differently below.
The eight agencies — honest time windows
Your submissions transmit the moment you approve. Everything after that runs on the government’s clock, not ours — and federal FOIA queues are long, backlogged, and famously uneven: the government’s own FY2025 count is 1.7 million requests with a 339,000-request backlog. Typical windows below; worst cases in italics, so there’s no confusion.
Illustrative aid — bars show typical windows for substantive personal-records requests; ○ marks where simple requests usually land; recorded worst cases at right. Source: the agencies’ own FY2025 FOIA annual reports (approximate calendar time), refreshed as new data publishes. Informational estimates only — every clock here belongs to the government, not Sirveil.
FAST MOVERS · DAYS TO WEEKS
FTC
Typical: days – 6 weeks
Worst case: rarely beyond ~6 months
Mostly your own consumer-complaint records. One of the fastest agencies.
DEA
Typical: 1–6 weeks
Worst case: complex files averaged ~5 months; the longest ran over 6 years
Law-enforcement files — releases are sparse, and files about living people are often withheld entirely.
IRS
Typical: 3 weeks – 3 months
Worst case: the slowest recent requests ran past 5 years
Administrative and case files. Your tax returns and transcripts are free directly from the IRS (Get Transcript) — no FOIA needed.
MIDDLE OF THE PACK · WEEKS TO MONTHS
DHS
Typical: 3 weeks – 4 months
Worst case: the longest recent case took ~10 years
The government’s biggest FOIA operation — over a million requests a year. Clarification questions have a 30-working-day answer window.
CFPB
Typical: days for simple requests · 3–5 months for bigger ones
Worst case: some queues ran past a year
Your complaint records with the Bureau.
DOJ
Typical: 2 weeks – 6 months, depending on component
Worst case: case-file requests averaged 1–2 years; the oldest has been pending since 2014
Main Justice records, routed to the right component for you.
THE LONG HAUL · MANY MONTHS, SOMETIMES YEARS
CBP
Typical: ~1 week for simple checks · 6–8 months for travel/border files
Worst case: some requests ran 8+ years
Travel and border-crossing records — and about 7 in 10 requesters are told no records exist.
FBI
Typical: days–weeks for small requests · 5–15 months for full files
Worst case: multi-year — the oldest open FBI request dates to 2015
Investigative files. About a third of requesters get “no records”; personal releases arrive by postal mail.
Figures from the agencies’ own FY2025 FOIA reports (medians and averages, business days converted to approximate calendar time); ranges refresh when new annual data publishes. Delays, backlogs, and agency error are real and outside anyone’s control but the government’s. Whatever the agency, the deal is the same: we do the filing and the chasing — the government decides what exists, what’s released, and when.
What happens, step by step
- Start free. Every free Sirveil account includes the FOIA tool.
- Order once. Complete your profile — it fills all eight agencies’ paperwork correctly the first time.
- Pay $49.99 through your app store — charged at order, never before.
- Verify it’s really you. Stripe Identity, right on your device — agencies only release records to verified requesters. Your ID stays with Stripe, never in Sirveil’s database.
- We file — immediately. Six agencies transmitted for you as your agent; DHS & CBP prepared and guided through their required portals.
- Track the wait. Agencies owe a determination in 20 business days by law — delivery is another matter (see the honest time windows above). Every status change lands in your dashboard, and if an agency stalls or denies, you have at least 90 days to appeal, free — the National Archives’ FOIA ombudsman (OGIS) mediates disputes, and we flag the window.
- Get your records. Releases land in your dashboard where agencies deliver electronically; a few (the FBI included) mail records straight to you — tracked either way. Errors in your file can be corrected under the Privacy Act — not erased.
What comes back — the honest version
Straight talk, because you're paying us for it: "no records" is the most common answer. Most people don't have an FBI file — and in FY2025, CBP found no records for about 7 in 10 requesters. That's not a failure; it's an answer, on the record. When records do exist, expect redactions: agencies routinely withhold other people's names and law-enforcement techniques under FOIA's exemptions, and some law-enforcement agencies will neither confirm nor deny that certain files exist. None of that is Sirveil falling short, and none of it is the government breaking the rules — it's how the Freedom of Information Act works. Your order buys the asking, done properly, to all eight agencies — not a guarantee of what the government holds, releases, or when. No outcome is guaranteed — by us or by anyone honest.
Why DHS & CBP work differently
Since January 22, 2026, federal rules require DHS and CBP requests to go through the agencies’ own portals — mail, fax, and email are no longer accepted. Rolling out — full agent-filing: one e-signed DHS Form 590 and Sammy submits both for you; until it ships, Sammy prepares everything and guides your final submit. Two things to know: the portal account is yours, and clarification questions carry a 30-working-day answer window before an agency may close the request — the app flags them the moment they appear.
Endorsed by you
One electronic signature: a DHS Form 590 declaration, executed under penalty of perjury (28 U.S.C. §1746), authorizes Sammy to file and receive these records for you. No notary, no printing, no paperwork.
Completed & filed for you
Rolling out: Sammy fills every field from your profile, attaches your signed authorization, and transmits each request through the agency’s required portal channel — you never touch a government portal yourself.
Tracked together
DHS and CBP land in the same dashboard as the six agencies Sammy already files directly — one timeline, one order, all eight agencies.
The rule: 90 FR 59945 (Dec. 23, 2025), effective January 22, 2026.
Broker opt-outs and takedowns are a separate function — those run on electronic takedowns included in your subscription; a verified electronic transfer is $3.99 per issuance.
General information, not legal advice — Sirveil isn't a law firm. FOIA covers federal executive-branch agency records; agency response times and outcomes vary, and no outcome — release, timing, or the existence of records — is guaranteed. Filing directly with any agency yourself is always free. Sirveil prepares and files as your authorized agent where permitted; fees pay for that work, not for results. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
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