How to Get Your Immigration Records from USCIS

You asked the government for your immigration file, and it came back closed. Or it came back saying there were “no records,” when you have a stack of USCIS receipt notices in a drawer. Or months have passed and nothing has come back at all. Since 2025 that has become a common experience, not a rare one. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s September 2026 practice advisory describes practitioners getting long waits, frequent rejections, over-redacted files, and “no records” answers for people whose records plainly exist.

The short answer: you request your USCIS file (the A-file) under the Freedom of Information Act, online, at first.uscis.gov. Ask for the specific documents you need rather than “my whole file.” Watch the account’s messages, and answer any question USCIS sends you within 30 working days, in the same system it used to ask. And if the request is closed or answered “no records,” that is not the end: you can file a better request, or you can appeal.

This page covers the records held by the Department of Homeland Security (USCIS, CBP and ICE) and what to do when a request fails. Immigration court files are a different agency and a different process, covered in our guide to getting your immigration court records.

What is an A-file, and what is in it?

An A-file (short for “alien file”) is the government’s master file on a person who is not a U.S. citizen, or who became one through naturalization. It is filed under your A-number, the number beginning with “A” that appears on your green card, work permit and USCIS notices. USCIS keeps it.

The A-file holds every application and petition filed for you or by you, the evidence filed with them, interview notes, officers’ decisions and the notes behind them, and copies of many records that started at other agencies: border encounters, arrest paperwork such as a Form I-213, and orders from immigration court. If anyone ever filed something in your name, including something you did not know about, the A-file is where it shows up.

That last point is the reason to read it. On our page about work permits and Form I-765 we describe a client whose first work-permit application came back labeled a “renewal,” because an earlier filing nobody had told us about was sitting in USCIS’s records. The A-file is how you find that kind of thing before an officer does.

Which agency holds the record you need?

The A-file is not the only government file about you, and asking the wrong agency is one of the most common reasons a request comes back empty. USCIS’s own FOIA page lists which agency to ask for what. In plain terms:

• USCIS: the A-file: applications, petitions, interview notes, decisions. Start here in almost every case.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): entries and exits, I-94 records, inspections at a port of entry, border apprehensions, expedited removal and voluntary return records. Our guide to fixing a CBP travel history that shows trips you never took explains how to request these and how to word the request.
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): detention records (including medical records from detention), bond records, and SEVIS records for students and exchange visitors.
• The immigration court (EOIR): the record of proceedings from a removal case. EOIR is part of the Department of Justice, not DHS, so it has its own rules and its own appeal route. See our immigration court records guide.
• The Department of State: visa applications made at a U.S. consulate, and U.S. passport applications, through the State Department’s FOIA office.

Many people need more than one. Anyone with a border encounter, an asylum interview or a removal case in their past usually needs the A-file and at least one of the others, because each agency’s file can be incomplete in ways that only show up when you compare them.

How do you request your A-file from USCIS?

Online, through USCIS’s FOIA system, called FIRST, at first.uscis.gov. Since January 22, 2026, DHS’s rules generally require FOIA requests to be filed online, and USCIS’s FOIA page says to submit them through FIRST after creating a USCIS account. The request is free in almost every case.

The steps, as of October 2026:

1. Create a USCIS online account (the same kind of account used to file forms online), then open FIRST.
2. Say what records you want. You choose from a list or describe specific documents. More on that choice below.
3. Answer whether the person has an upcoming immigration court hearing. This question is required, and a “yes” with proof moves the request to a faster track.
4. Give the identifying information for the person whose file it is: name, date of birth, country of birth, and the A-number if known.
5. Verify identity and consent. If you are requesting your own file, you verify your own identity. If a lawyer or family member is requesting it for you, USCIS contacts you by email or text message to confirm your identity and your consent, and you approve the request yourself. Alternatively, the lawyer can upload a signed consent and identity statement.
6. Watch the account. USCIS sends questions, notices and, at the end, the records themselves through the account, and emails you when something is waiting.

Two rules trip people up. One request covers one person: USCIS says it will reject a single request covering several people, even close relatives. And when a lawyer files for you, the consent questions arrive on your phone or email right away, in English, so it helps to be with the lawyer when the request goes in.

Should you ask for the whole file, or for specific documents?

Ask for specific documents whenever you can. USCIS says so itself: “We can process requests for precise records much faster than requests for an entire file.” A request for “the I-130 my father filed for me and the approval notice” or “my asylum interview notes” is easier to search, quicker to review, and harder to close as inadequately described than a request for “everything.”

There are times when you need the whole file: before filing for naturalization after a complicated history, after a prior lawyer’s misconduct, or when you do not know what was filed in your name. Then ask for it, and say so plainly. The ILRC advisory reports that one legal services organization serving refugees had far better results after limiting its requests to the one document that mattered most. That is a sensible pattern even when you will eventually want more: ask first for what you need now, and file a second request for the rest.

Be careful with the optional fields. FIRST asks for more information than it requires, such as parents’ names and other family members. The ILRC advisory reports requests being denied over small inconsistencies between what the requester typed and what was in the file, including in fields that were not required. Fill in the required fields exactly as they appear on your immigration documents. For an optional field, ask whether the answer helps USCIS find the right file, and leave it blank if you are unsure of spellings or dates.

Do you still use Form G-639?

Not for most people. Form G-639 is USCIS’s paper FOIA request form; its current edition is dated 12/12/24, and the old uscis.gov/g-639 address now forwards to the online FOIA page. Since January 22, 2026, paper requests are accepted only when someone cannot file online. The DHS rule gives incarceration as the example and sends those requesters to the agency’s FOIA public liaison first.

The ILRC advisory reports that USCIS’s FOIA public liaison confirmed a completed G-639 (or a G-28) can still be uploaded inside FIRST as the identity-and-consent document. That is the form’s main remaining use.

What if you have an immigration court hearing scheduled?

Say so, and prove it. USCIS gives priority to A-file requests from people with a scheduled hearing before an immigration judge, if the request includes one of four documents: a Notice to Appear (Form I-862), an Order to Show Cause (Form I-122), a Notice of Referral to Immigration Judge (Form I-863), or a written notice continuing the hearing to a future date. The document has to show the upcoming hearing date.

This faster track exists because of a court case. In Nightingale v. USCIS, a federal court in California found in December 2020 that DHS, USCIS and ICE had a pattern of missing FOIA’s deadlines on A-file requests, and ordered them to meet the deadlines from then on, clear the existing backlog, and report to the court every quarter. In its September 15, 2026 report to that court, USCIS said requests from people with scheduled hearings were being answered in an average of about 8 business days. For someone in removal proceedings, a request without the hearing document is a mistake, because it costs the priority.

How long is USCIS supposed to take, and how long does it take?

The statute gives an agency 20 working days to decide a FOIA request, plus up to 10 more in “unusual circumstances” (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)). The Nightingale injunction holds USCIS and ICE to those deadlines for A-file requests and requires the government to report its compliance to the court every quarter.

The most recent report, filed September 15, 2026 (Defendants’ Twenty-Third Compliance Report), covers June 15 to September 14, 2026. USCIS reported:

• about 141,230 new A-file requests in the quarter;
• about 89.5% completed on time, down from about 99.96% the quarter before;
• a backlog of about 1,704 A-file requests; and
• average processing times of about 13.7, 18.5 and 8 business days across its three tracks.

Those numbers measure how fast USCIS issues a determination. They do not measure whether the determination produced records. A closure counts as a determination, and that is exactly what is disputed in the case (see below). The agency’s own year-end numbers point the same way. USCIS’s FOIA appeal backlog was 346 at the end of fiscal year 2024 and 5,829 at the end of fiscal year 2025, according to DHS’s FY 2025 annual FOIA report on FOIA.gov. These are snapshots as of the dates stated. Plan for a request that is answered quickly but not always completely, and keep the dates.

What changed on January 22, 2026?

This section is a dated snapshot, written in October 2026.

On December 23, 2025, DHS published a final rule, 90 FR 59945, effective January 22, 2026, amending its FOIA and Privacy Act rules at 6 CFR § 5.3 and § 5.21. It was issued without public comment. It changed two things, and both apply at every DHS component: USCIS, CBP and ICE alike.

• Requests go in online. Mail, fax and email requests are no longer generally accepted. Requests go through dhs.gov/foia, FOIA.gov or the component’s own portal: FIRST for USCIS, and SecureRelease for CBP and ICE. A requester who cannot file electronically, such as a person in custody, asks the component’s FOIA public liaison for another method.
• The back-and-forth moved to your inbox, and the clock got stricter. When DHS thinks a request does not describe the records well enough, it can ask you for more information. Under the rule as it stood before January 22, 2026, that question could come by mail or email, and you could answer either way; a mailed answer was on time if it was postmarked within 30 working days. Now the question comes by email or portal message (or by phone, followed by an email summary). If DHS contacts you only by email or portal message, you must answer in the same medium, and your answer must be received within 30 working days.

What did not change is the power to close a request. DHS’s rules have allowed it to administratively close a request that does not adequately describe the records, or that goes unanswered for 30 working days after a request for more information, since its 2016 FOIA rule. The 2026 rule moved the exchange online. The practical effect is that a request can now live or die on a portal message you did not see. Turn on email notifications, check the account weekly while a request is pending, and calendar 30 working days from the date of any question USCIS sends.

As of October 2026 we are not aware of any court challenge to the January 2026 rule.

Why are so many requests being closed or rejected?

Part of the answer is in public court filings, and part of it is an unproven accusation. Keep the two apart.

What is alleged. On December 19, 2025, the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower-advocacy organization, released a disclosure by a USCIS National Records Center employee. It alleges that starting in 2025 the records center adopted policies to “prematurely close thousands of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests,” so that USCIS’s reports in Nightingale would look compliant. According to the disclosure, the closure reasons included requests that used a lawyer’s mailing address, small A-number errors, reversed dates of birth and variations in parents’ names. In September 2026 the organization named the employee and alleged that the request backlog has become an appeals backlog.

What the government says. In January 2026, USCIS filed a declaration in Nightingale that, in the government’s words, explained that USCIS “has acted in good faith in all of its efforts to comply with the Court’s injunction.” The government’s position in the case is that the injunction concerns how quickly USCIS responds, not the substance of its responses.

Where it stands. No court has found that USCIS did what the disclosure alleges. In an April 2026 joint status report, the class’s lawyers asked the court to strike six USCIS records policies, including the attorney-address policy, and acknowledged that USCIS had revised some of its guidance in January and February 2026. On September 29, 2026, the court extended, for the third time, the plaintiffs’ deadline to file a motion to enforce the injunction (now November 2, 2026), and set a hearing for December 16, 2026 (class counsel’s case page posts the filings).

For a reader, the practical lesson does not depend on how that comes out. Practitioners report, and USCIS guidance filed in the case shows, requests being closed for small mismatches. So match your documents exactly, give the address the request actually requires, keep optional fields clean, and keep proof of everything you submitted.

What happens if your request is administratively closed?

You get a notice saying the request is closed, usually because USCIS decided it did not describe the records well enough or because a question went unanswered. The rule’s own language is what you are likely to see quoted back to you: “If a request does not adequately describe the records sought, DHS may at its discretion either seek additional information from the requester, or administratively close the request.” (6 CFR § 5.3(c).)

Read the notice for the reason, then choose one of two doors.

• File a better request. The same rule says closure “does not prejudice the requester’s ability to submit a new request for further consideration with additional information.” Fix whatever the notice names, narrow the request to specific documents, and file again. This is usually the fastest route to the records. The cost is that the time spent on the first request is lost.
• Appeal. A closure is not a dead end with no review. DHS’s own rules list a decision that a request “does not reasonably describe the records sought” as an adverse determination (6 CFR § 5.6(d)). When DHS adopted the closure rule in 2016, it said it “treats such a closure as an adverse determination from which the requester can seek administrative appeal” (81 FR 83625, 83629). So can a decision that misreads your request or rests on a procedural error (6 CFR § 5.8(a)). The appeal is due within 90 working days of the response.

Which door? Our practice is to refile when the closure points to a real gap in the request, and to appeal when the request was adequate and the closure rests on a reason the rules do not support, such as rejecting a mailing address when nothing in the rules requires a physical one, or a spelling variation the file itself explains. When a hearing date or a filing deadline is close, we often do both: refile narrowly to get the key document, and appeal to keep the dispute alive.

What if USCIS says it has no records?

Do not accept it if you know records exist. A “no records” response is also an adverse determination under DHS’s rules, and you can appeal on the ground that the search was inadequate (6 CFR § 5.8(a)).

First, check the obvious causes: the wrong agency (border records are at CBP, not USCIS), a name or date that does not match how the file was opened, or an A-number typed wrong. A “no records” answer can also be how a request ends when the A-number or another detail did not match the file exactly. If none of those explains it, appeal and attach the proof that records exist: receipt notices, an approval notice, a biometrics appointment letter, an old work permit. The ILRC advisory reports exactly this pattern, “no records” answers for people who hold USCIS notices, and appeals are the tool it recommends.

How do you file an administrative appeal, and where does it go?

It depends on which agency answered.

USCIS, CBP and ICE (all DHS). Follow the appeal instructions in the determination letter; USCIS’s FOIA page says that is where they are. The ILRC advisory reports that USCIS’s FOIA public liaison advises filing USCIS appeals online through FIRST, and that CBP and ICE direct appeals to SecureRelease (ICE still allows appeals on paper). Under 6 CFR § 5.8(a):

• the appeal must be in writing and on time, within 90 working days after the response;
• mark it “Freedom of Information Act Appeal” and include the request number;
• say why the decision was wrong (the request did describe the records; the reason given is not in the rules; the search missed records you can prove exist), and attach the proof.

The agency has 20 working days to decide the appeal, extendable in unusual circumstances, though practitioners report appeals running months longer. Alongside or instead of an appeal, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives offers free mediation between requesters and agencies. It does not decide the dispute, but it sometimes moves a stuck request.

The immigration court (EOIR). A FOIA request returned by EOIR is appealed to the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy, not to DHS, within 90 calendar days, not working days as at DHS (28 CFR § 16.8(a)). Our guide to immigration court records covers that route, and the faster option of asking the court directly for your own file, in full.

When can you take a FOIA request to federal court?

When the administrative route has been used up, or when the agency has missed its deadline. A FOIA lawsuit can be filed in the federal district court where you live or have your principal place of business, where the records are, or in Washington, D.C., and the court decides the matter fresh, with the burden on the agency to justify what it withheld (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B)).

• If the agency decided your request, you generally must appeal first; DHS’s rules say so (6 CFR § 5.8(e)).
• If the agency missed its deadline, the statute treats you as having used up the administrative route, and you may sue without appealing (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C)(i)). That works only if you sue before the agency responds; once it responds, even late, courts generally require you to appeal first.
• If you substantially prevail, the court may order the government to pay reasonable attorney fees and costs (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E)).

In practice a lawsuit is a tool for a record that matters to a pending case, not a first step. A short, specific request, a fast appeal, and a lawyer’s letter to the FOIA public liaison usually get there sooner. But when a hearing date is fixed and the record decides the case, a FOIA suit is a real option, not a theoretical one.

What do you do with the file once you have it?

Read it before you file anything else. That is the reason to request it. What to look for depends on why you asked:

• Before a naturalization application: whether you were lawfully admitted, and whether anything filed for you was inaccurate. Our post on why naturalization works like an audit explains what the officer will re-read.
• After a firm you used is accused of fraud: exactly what was filed in your name. See what to do if your immigration firm is accused of fraud.
• With a removal or deportation in your past: which removals and departures the government recorded, which decides the bar you face. See returning after deportation.
• If an officer has questioned how you got your green card: the original petition and the officer’s notes. See when the government says a green card was never valid.

Many files are unremarkable, and that is good news worth having on paper. The ones that are not are better discovered by you and your lawyer, on your schedule, than by an officer in the middle of an interview. If you have your file and want it read by someone who has read thousands of them, a strategy consultation is built for exactly that, and you can contact us to set one up.

This page describes the law and agency practice as of October 2026. FOIA rules, portals and processing times change; check the linked sources for the current version.