Welcome to the U.S. Department of Transportation Public Access Link.

We hope you will find this site informative and useful and that it will give you a better understanding of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its implementation at the Department of Transportation. This portal makes it easy to submit FOIA or Privacy Act request online while allowing you the ability to check the status of your request.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Public Access Link (PAL) site allows you to: 

• Request U.S. DOT FOIA records
• Request U.S. DOT Privacy Act records
• Submit an Appeal
• Access previously requested records
• Check the status of your request

To Submit a Request Online

To submit a request click Sign In. You will be prompted to sign into Login.gov or create an account with Login.gov if you don’t already have an account. You will then be redirected back to PAL to finish creating your PAL profile.

To Check the Status of a Request

To check on the status of the request, Sign In. You can view the status of your request(s), send a message to the FOIA Office, or download records once they are delivered.

DOT FOIA Reading Rooms

Visit our agency component reading rooms, the records you seek may already be posted publicly.

Note: If you do not wish to create a PAL account, you may submit a FOIA request directly through FOIA.GOV website by clicking here. For Privacy Act requests please click here. Please be aware that by choosing this option, you lose your ability to check the status of your request online.

If you are not registered, you can send an email to the OST FOIA email address for a status check OST.FOIA@DOT.GOV