FOIA

Filing freedom-of-information requests is how archives like this one grow. Every statute below has the same shape: a specific law, a specific office, and a request specific enough to be answerable.

USA — FOIA (5 U.S.C. § 552)

  • File through each agency's online FOIA portal. For UAP specifically: the AARO FOIA office, the federal hub at foia.gov, and the NARA catalog for declassified Blue Book material.
  • Name the records concretely: event, date, unit, file number — e.g. "AFOSI sighting reports from Kirtland AFB, June–August 1980", not "all UAP records".
  • Ask for digital delivery (PDF / WAV / MP4) and state non-commercial, public-interest use where the statute supports a fee waiver.

Other jurisdictions

  • UK — FOIA 2000 via the MoD's FOI form; accessioned files via TNA Discovery.
  • France — Loi nº 78-753; most GEIPAN material is already public, CADA handles refusals.
  • Brazil — Lei nº 12.527/2011 (LAI) via the e-SIC portal.
  • Chile — Ley nº 20.285 via the Portal de Transparencia.
  • Argentina — Ley nº 27.275; Uruguay — Ley nº 18.381; Peru — Ley nº 27.806; Spain — Ley nº 19/2013; Italy — D.lgs. 33/2013; Canada — ATIA; New Zealand — OIA 1982.

Tips that increase response rates

  • Be specific. "All UAP records 1947–present" gets a form-letter denial; a named incident with a date range gets results.
  • Cite file references where known. DEFE 24/1948, RG 341, VIRINs — the agency's own catalog IDs short-circuit the search.
  • Pre-check the catalogue. NARA, TNA Discovery and other national archives have public search; the file you want is sometimes already accessioned and just needs a copy order.
  • One statute, one agency, one subject. Combined requests get pinballed between offices.
  • Pursue partial denials. Most statutes require the agency to name the exemption; a targeted appeal often unlocks redacted sections.
  • Share results. Obtained something previously unreleased? Open an issue and we will mirror it.

The full per-jurisdiction walkthrough with copy-paste letter templates lives on the original static edition's FOIA guide.