US Adoptees:
File A FOIA Request For Your Full US Immigr. File.
Filing A FOIA Request is Simple and FREE.

BEFORE Filing A FOIA Request, Please Read Our WARNINGS Regarding The FOIA Process (In Current Times) Below.

*UPDATE February 1st, 2026:

WARNING:

According to Adoptee Rights Law, FOIA applicants may experience the following issues when submitting FOIA requests in the current environment in the US:

In current times, many FOIA requests have been routinely denied, and requesters are told that “records do not exist”. Individuals have been told this in order to speed up the appearance of request fulfillment. These practices appear designed to discourage filings by making the process more burdensome.

New obstacles for filing FOIA requests have also been introduced, such as requiring applicants to verify information that they may be seeking precisely through a FOIA request. More recently, it has been claimed that an online account is required to submit a FOIA request, despite the fact that the law does not impose such a requirement. Accountability for these practices will take time.

Your decision regarding whether or not you should file a FOIA request right now is down to your own level of comfort. While US immigration attorneys can offer best practice advice to Adoptees, things are rapidly changing in today’s environment.

Our standpoint is that Adoptees should err on the side of caution in these times. However, if you are uncertain about your status, you should consult a US immigration lawyer whom you trust before proceeding. Greg Luce of Adoptee Rights Law works pro-bono for Adoptees, and is someone we would recommend contacting if you have serious needs.

Please NOTE: If your question can simply be answered by a Google query, please do not reach out to Adoptee Rights Law. They are swamped with cases, so please only reach out if you have a significant issue or concern.

We don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that things are rapidly changing in these times — and that Intercountry Adoptees should err on the side of caution when making decisions about FOIA right now.

We can only hope that FOIA rebounds at a later time.

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*UPDATE January 30th, 2026:

WARNING:

 We want to note that there is a group still actively encouraging US Adoptees to file a FOIA request in these times. While they are at least including a cautionary message - since we *ASKED* them to when advising Korean Adoptees about FOIA, even after they plagiarized our page - they still seem to think it's a good idea to encourage Korean Adoptees to file a FOIA request right now. 

Please note that you should really consult with a US Immigr. Attorney BEFORE you decide to file a FOIA request. 

Many people forget, but the trigger for a highly prominent Korean Adoptee's dep*rt*ation was when he applied to renew his legal green card. This triggered an investigation and it was then discovered he had not been naturalized, and had felonies in his history. He was subsequently removed from the US to Korea, and to this day has a 10 year ban from the US.

While Adoptee Rights Law has always maintained that filing a FOIA request should not trigger any kind of investigation, we have been in touch with this organization for years, as this is the main source of Paperslip's FOIA information - which we have always credited, since we have a sense of ETHICS. Since the new US administration came to power, there are things that Adoptee Rights Law have said would not happen that HAVE happened, as conditions continue to worsen here in the US. We trust Adoptee Rights Law's advice, but we also trust our own instincts when it comes to the current environment here in the US. 

Please use CAUTION when engaging with ANY processes involving the US govt. right now. 

You are reading Paperslip's FOIA page, which was recently plagiarized by another group. We really don't want to see folks hurt by triggering anything adverse by filing a FOIA request IF it's unnecessary to do right now. However, IF you have adverse circumstances, please consult an Immigr. Attorney whom you trust. Please note that FOIA requests are coming back up to 90% redacted right now, and are unfortunately practically useless. 

It is hoped that FOIA will rebound in the future.

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*UPDATE September 8th, 2025:

WARNING!

We do NOT advise you to file a FOIA at this point without consulting a U.S. immigr. lawyer whom you trust. Please watch this video to learn why.

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UPDATE September 15th, 2025:

Please note that Adoptee Rights Law has helpfully updated its page on FOIA requests, per our suggestion. Please note however that our FOIA page contains information specific to Korean Adoptees, so please be sure to read BOTH pages BEFORE filing a FOIA request, should you choose to do so.

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For US Adoptees, you can submit an online FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Request To Get Information About Your Adoption.

*Please note that this info. applies to ALL Korean Adoptees.

*UPDATE May 14th, 2025:

Please note that new FOIA requests may contain an unprecedented number of redactions.

Please note that unless you need to do a FOIA request for important purposes, it may be best to wait until FOIA documents are less redacted, hopefully in the future. If you have serious needs regarding FOIA requests, we recommend that you consult an immigr. lawyer.

NOTE:

If possible — independently of a FOIA request — try to obtain certified copies of the birth certificates and marriage certificates of your adoptive parents, and keep those somewhere safe. Just in case.

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*UPDATE June 30th, 2024: Please be sure to READ this entire page BEFORE you fill out and submit your FOIA request!

*UPDATE June 30th, 2024 - Please see our updated NEW GRAPHICS and information below. Please READ this page carefully and watch the video BEFORE you fill out your FOIA request. Otherwise you may have an unsuccessful FOIA request! You may only have 2-3 attempts to submit a FOIA request, so please do NOT rush through your application.

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For US Adoptees, you can submit a simple and FREE online FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request in order to obtain your Immigr. file. This will NOT initiate a Birth Family Search with KSS in Korea (nor with any other Korean or Western Adoption Agency), however, we cannot more strongly recommend filing a FOIA request in order to obtain as much information about your adoption procedure as possible. An example FOIA request by a US Korean Adoptee returned an 80 page PDF. There will always be some redactions in a FOIA file. This is normal. Trying to get the redacted information will likely be a waste of your time, but you do you.

*Important Update, June 2024: Previously, the FOIA application had the option to request your “ALIEN FILE”, which was the way to request your ENTIRE FILE, instead of individual documents. NOW, you must select “Other” and TYPE “ALIEN FILE” in order to obtain your COMPLETE US Immigr. File. Please see the NEW GRAPHICS below.

*Important Note: Please be sure to watch this highly informative video about how to file a FOIA request (external link).

*Important Note: A FOIA request is about US Immigration. It is NOT a request purely related to Adoption, nor strictly related to Korean Adoption. However, because ALL Korean Adoptees adopted to the US were adopted trans-nationally (between Korea and the US), your FOIA request will contain many documents pertaining to your Adoption. For this reason, we cannot more strongly recommend that ALL US Korean Adoptees make a FOIA request, so that they can receive as many documents relating to their adoption as possible.

Adoptee Rights Law has advised:

"You don’t necessarily need either (the current passport or A-number), though the A-Number is BEST if you have it. (You can find your A-Number at the top right hand of your US Naturalization Certificate). Generally you’ll need the birth name (Korean) at the time of entry to the US." *Please see NEW GRAPHICS below.

*UPDATE - Please NOTE: We believe it’s best if you use your NAME as it is written on your Korean Travel Certificate or Passport. For more information about what this document might look like, please see: Korea’s Evolving Travel Document System.

”Indicate on the FOIA form the names of adoptive parents, as sometimes they use those names to match any records. Do not use the field "Other Family Members" unless you have a specific reason to do it.”

Please see this important page with more information about FOIA:

Getting Your Own Immigration Records

How Do I Find My A-Number?

Your A-Number may be handwritten on your Korean Travel Certificate or Passport, or typed or handwritten on other adoption documents. Please see the graphic below for how to find your A-Number.

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Here is info. on how to submit an online FOIA request for US Adoptees:

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act):

We recommend that only naturalized US citizens file a FOIA request.

The application process is simple and FREE:

File a FOIA Request Here:

https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-information-act-or-privacy-act

A FOIA request will take several weeks to several months to process. You can track your progress online once you file your request.

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU FILL OUT YOUR FOIA REQUEST!

There was a recent online discussion over what Koreans consider to be a FIRST name vs. LAST name, and the fact that Koreans don't generally use MIDDLE names, caused us to wonder if Korean vs. Western naming conventions might be part of what is causing some Korean Adoptees' FOIA requests to FAIL. 

Because in the case of a name like "Jin Hee LEE" - where Koreans might consider "Jin Hee" to be the two-syllable FIRST Name, in the US, perhaps US officials might consider "Hee" to be the MIDDLE name. This is a GUESS and we cannot confirm what US officials would consider to be a "middle" name in the case of a Romanized Korean name such as "Jin Hee LEE". 

In general you want to use your Romanized Korean name spelled EXACTLY as it was on your US adoption documents. We highly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE VARIATIONS of your KOREAN name spelled in ENGLISH at US entry (see the GRAPHICS below for exactly how to do this).

There is the option on the FOIA application to "Add Name" and we recommend adding as many possible Korean name variations as make sense. Please see the graphics on the link below for a further explanation. 

Try using VARIATIONS of your Korean name (spelled in English) as it was at US ENTRY. Use the most likely variation FIRST.

For example, if your US documents say your name was “Jin Hee LEE” (where LEE is the LAST / SURNAME) note that in Korean “Jin Hee” would be your FIRST NAME (no middle name) but that in the US, they MIGHT consider “Hee” to be your MIDDLE name.

*You should use your KOREAN name spelled in English EXACTLY as how it appears on your adoption documents / US entry documents when it aks for “your full name used upon entry into the United States”.

We recommend trying ALL possible variations of your KOREAN name spelled in ENGLISH - you can click “Add Name” and enter multiple variations of your name (see below). Enter the most likely variation of your KOREAN name FIRST.

*Also note that you should add your English MAIDEN name as one of the variations.

*In general when filling out these forms, bear in mind that FOIA officers are trying to figure out what NAME you officially went by AT US ENTRY. If you had various name changes, are unsure of your name at US entry, if your adoptive parents had different last names from one another, etc. we strongly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE VARIATIONS of your most likely name at US entry, starting from the one that is based on any adoption documents you may have. If you have different kinds of Korean names on different adoption documents, we highly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE NAME VARIATIONS, starting with the one you feel most confident about.

*Please see the graphics below for how to fill out the relevant FOIA request pages:

IMPORTANT!!!
Be sure to select “Other” and TYPE “ALIEN FILE” in order to request your COMPLETE US Immigr. File. You will get the most amount of documents this way!

Do NOT select individual files! You will get FEWER documents this way!