Reference · Service times
How long complex U.S. federal FOIA requests took in fiscal 2025
The U.S. Justice Department reported that 56.52% of processed complex Freedom of Information Act requests fell within 40 working days in fiscal 2025. That compares with 62.95% in fiscal 2024. The distribution shows how often completed requests fell into longer processing bands.
Sources checked
FY 2024
Shared scale · 0% to 35.52%
FY 2025
Shared scale · 0% to 35.52%
Each bar is the share of the fiscal year’s processed complex requests in that band.
The series follows requests that were processed
The Justice Department handbook measures working days for perfected requests, using the date the agency receives a request that meets its procedural requirements. The processed-request distribution describes closed cases and has a separate reporting category from pending cases. Source 1 Source 2
The 21-to-40-day band remained the largest
In fiscal 2025 the 21-to-40-day band accounted for 33.40%, and the first band accounted for 23.12%. The same two bands represented 62.95% in fiscal 2024. The summary reports 74.92% of fiscal 2025 complex requests were processed within 100 days. Source 1
The long tail moved in different directions
The 201-to-300-day group increased from 4.78% to 5.81%. The 401-days-and-above group decreased from 3.49% to 2.30%. These percentages describe all processed complex cases for the year, with no measure of how many unresolved requests were still waiting in each band. Source 1 Source 2
The simple track is a separate series
Complex requests may involve a large volume of records, multiple searches or consultations. The Justice Department separately reports an average of 48.96 days for simple-track requests across agencies reporting that measure in fiscal 2025. The figure answers a different question from the complex-track distribution. Source 1