CBP FOIA Request for Your Travel Records: How To

After a Global Entry denial or revocation, CBP’s letters point to three places for more information: an enrollment center, the CBP Information Center, and a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (GAO recommendation status, June 2024 letter update). A FOIA request is the one that gets you documents: the records CBP holds about your travel, your inspections and any penalty.

Why a FOIA request helps after a denial

A reconsideration request is read next to CBP’s own records, and GAO reports that the traveler, not the Ombudsman, is responsible for supplying the documents (GAO-24-106314, p. 24). If you have no paperwork from an old inspection or penalty, or the letter’s description doesn’t match your memory, your CBP records show what was noted. CBP’s FOIA pages say you can request records of your own travel and of secondary inspections at ports of entry, and that travel records go back to 1982.

What FOIA won’t do

FOIA gives access to existing records, with exemptions. It doesn’t make an agency explain a decision or create a record that doesn’t exist (FOIA.gov). CBP’s FAQ says questions posed as FOIA requests won’t be processed, so “please tell me why I was denied” gets you nowhere. For the reason behind a trusted traveler decision, CBP’s FOIA page says to contact the relevant enrollment center instead. Law-enforcement material in your records can also be withheld under FOIA exemptions.

If your problem is repeated secondary screening or being confused with someone else, DHS TRIP is the redress route for that; a FOIA request can run alongside it.

Where to file: online only

Since January 22, 2026, CBP no longer accepts hard-copy FOIA requests by mail, fax or email. You submit through CBP’s SecureRelease portal or through FOIA.gov. You’ll get an acknowledgment and a tracking number; keep it with your case notes. There’s no special form: FOIA.gov says a request must be in writing and reasonably describe the records you want.

One of CBP’s pages still mentions a mailing address for requests. The newer FOIA notice says hard copy is no longer accepted, so plan on the portal.

Proving it’s you

A request for your own records needs identity details. DHS’s rule asks for your full name, current address, date and place of birth, and country of citizenship or residency, with a signature that is either notarized or made under penalty of perjury under 28 U.S.C. 1746 (6 CFR 5.21). CBP’s records page says it accepts a signed Certification of Identity form, a perjury statement and signature, or a notary.

The statute gives the wording for an unsworn declaration made inside the United States, and a slightly different form for one signed outside it. Use the exact form for where you sign.

What to ask for

CBP says precise requests come back faster. Give dates, times, ports of entry, officer names if you know them, and the types of document you want. CBP’s FAQ also asks for your date of birth, any A-number and any other names you have used at entry. Ask only for what you need; the categories that usually matter after a Global Entry decision are:

your entries into and exits from the United States, for a stated date range;
any secondary inspection or examination of you, naming the port and date if you can;
any penalty, seizure or violation recorded against you;
records of your trusted traveler application or membership, including decision notices.

Ask to receive records electronically through the portal, and ask that any partly withheld record be released in its segregable parts, with the exemption identified for each withholding.

Model wording and the identity statement, ready to adapt

The kit’s FOIA template gives you text to paste into SecureRelease or FOIA.gov, the four record requests above in full, and the identity statement with the statutory wording. The planner works out the FOIA decision date in working days, skipping weekends and the federal holidays OPM publishes.

Get the kit for $49 See all 8 templates

Self-help kit. You file everything yourself; nobody submits anything for you.

Fees

There’s no fee to file. For most individuals, CBP charges for copying only after the first 100 pages and for search time only after two hours. State the most you’re willing to pay in your request: CBP’s FAQ notes that some regulations treat a request as agreeing to pay up to $25.

How long a CBP FOIA request takes

The Freedom of Information Act gives an agency 20 working days, excluding weekends and legal public holidays, to decide on a request, and allows an extension of up to 10 more working days in unusual circumstances (5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)). That’s the decision deadline, not a delivery promise: backlogs can make real waits longer. Send the request in the same week as your other record requests, such as court dispositions, because the slowest record sets the pace for your reconsideration request.

If records are withheld or the answer is late

You can appeal a FOIA response. CBP’s FAQ says to appeal through SecureRelease within 90 days of the final response letter; DHS’s rule says 90 working days (6 CFR 5.8). Plan on the shorter, calendar-day reading. If you can’t use the portal, CBP’s FAQ gives a mailing address for appeals: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, FOIA Appeals and Policy Branch, 90 K Street NE, Mail Stop 1177, Washington, DC 20229.

Records first, then the request

The kit’s records pack says who holds each record CBP asks for, how to get it and why it matters, from your FOIA file to court dispositions on PACER. Then it takes you through the reconsideration request itself.

Get the kit for $49 How reconsideration works

Independent, not affiliated with CBP, DHS, TSA or any government agency. General information, not legal advice.

Official sources

This guide is general information about processes the U.S. government publishes. It is not legal advice, and it is not affiliated with CBP, DHS, TSA or any government agency. Nothing here predicts or promises an outcome.