[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 19, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 19CFR103.6]

[Page 446-447]
 
                        TITLE 19--CUSTOMS DUTIES
 
  CHAPTER I--UNITED STATES CUSTOMS SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
 
PART 103--AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
 Subpart A--Production of Documents/Disclosure of Information Under the 
                                  FOIA
 
Sec. 103.6  Grant or denial of initial request.

    (a) Officers designated to make initial determinations--(1) Service 
ports. The appropriate director of a service port, or in the case of 
records of the Office of Investigations, the appropriate special agent 
in charge (SAC), shall make any initial determination of a request for a 
record which is maintained, respectively, at that service port or under 
the SAC's jurisdiction.
    (2) Headquarters. For records located at Customs Service 
Headquarters, the initial determination to grant or deny a request shall 
be made by the appropriate Division Director at Customs Service 
Headquarters having custody of or functional jurisdiction over the 
subject matter of the requested records. In the event the request 
relates to records which are maintained in an office which is not within 
a division, the initial determination shall be made by the individual 
designated for that purpose by the Assistant Commissioner having 
responsibility for that office.
    (b) Time limit for initial determinations. The time limit for making 
an initial determination to grant or deny a request for records, 
including the time for notifying the requester of that determination, is 
10 days (excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) after 
the date of receipt of the request (see Sec. 103.5(f)), unless the 
designated officer invokes an extension pursuant to Sec. 103.8(a) or the 
requester otherwise agrees to an extension.
    (c) Grant of request. If the appropriate Customs officer grants a 
request, and if the requester wants a copy of the requested records, 
that officer shall mail a copy of those records to the requester 
together with a statement of the fees for search and duplication at the 
time of the determination or promptly thereafter. If a requester wants 
to inspect the record, the appropriate Customs officer who grants the 
request shall send written notice to the requester stating the time and 
place of inspection and the amount of any fee involved in the request. 
In such a case, the appropriate Customs officer shall make the record 
available for inspection at the time and place stated, but in a manner 
so as not to interfere with its use by the United States Customs Service 
or to exclude other persons from making an inspection. In addition, 
reasonable limitations may be placed on the number of records which may 
be inspected by a person on any given date. The requester is not allowed 
to remove a record from the inspection room. If, after making 
inspection, the requester wants a copy of all or a portion of the 
requested record, the appropriate Customs officer shall supply the 
desired copy upon payment

[[Page 447]]

of the established fee prescribed in Sec. 103.10.
    (d) Denial of request. The Customs officer who denies a request for 
records (whether in whole or in part) shall mail written notice of the 
denial to the requester. The letter of notificatimn shall contain (1) 
the physical location of the requested records, (2) the applicable 
exemption(s) and reason for not granting the request, (3) the name and 
title or position of the Customs officer who denied the request, (4) 
advice on the right to administrative appeal in accordance with 
Sec. 103.7, and (5) the title and address of the Customs officer who is 
to decide any appeal.
    (e) Inability to locate records within time limits. If a requested 
record cannot be located and evaluated within the initial 10-day period 
or the extension period allowed under Sec. 103.8(a), the Customs officer 
who is responsible for the initial determination shall continue to 
search for the records. However, that officer shall also notify the 
requester of the facts and inform the requester that he or she may 
consider the notification to be a denial of access within the meaning of 
paragraph (d) of this section, and provide the requester with the 
address for the submission of an administrative appeal. The requester 
may also be invited, in the alternative, to agree to a voluntary 
extension of time in which to locate and evaluate the records. A 
voluntary extension of time does not waive a requester's right to appeal 
any ultimate denial of access or to appeal a failure to locate the 
records within the voluntary extension period.

[T.D. 81-168, 46 FR 32565, June 24, 1981, as amended by T.D. 96-36, 61 
FR 19838, May 3, 1996]