Callbook and Callsign FAQ
A3a: The Freedom of Information Act was enacted by Congress to give the public access to federal records. This is a legitimate way to access government records, and has been used successfully by certain individuals to obtain information that is not available from callbooks, such as actual license dates. FOIA-requested documentation should also be acceptable to VEs as proof of a previous license, though this has not (to my knowledge) been verified.
The FCC has a web page detailing its processes for making and responding to FOIA requests. This page includes an electronic form that can be filled out online to submit a request. The page also details the nominal timelines, and the potential costs of a FOIA request.
Note that this is not a quick process--government agencies have 20 business days to determine if they can satisfy the request, and then have an additional 10 days to actually execute it. There is a potential negotiation process that may ensue. So don't expect to hear back from them the next day.
The law allows the government agencies to recover their costs in performing research and providing copies of records for FOIA. But there are exemptions for situations where the purpose of the request is clearly non-commercial and the size of the request is minimal. (The statutory threshhold for a minimal request is less than two hours of research and less than 100 pages of copies.) If both of these conditions are met, the FOIA request will be performed at no cost to the requester. It would appear that most cases of FOIA requests by individuals for their own (or a relative's) license records should qualify for the fee exemption. Request the exemption by checking the "yes" box in question 11a, and provide a statement in 11b that explicitly states that you are requesting personal information and will not use the information for any commercial purposes.
Other FOIA notes:
1. The answer to question 10a is no. (You are not requesting information that is exempt from FOIA.)
2. Keep your request small, so that you don't exceed the two-hour research limit for fee exemption. For example, don't submit (in a single request) a list of 25 callsigns to research--break that up into separate requests for each callsign.
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