Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2086. First, know what you are filling: Freedom of Information (FOI) Processing Cost. The document is titled DD Form 2086, Record of Freedom of Information Processing Cost, January 2003.
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
After that, turn to timing. The requirement comes from not stated; the form is maintained by not stated. Local implementing instructions fill in the dates, so check with the office that will receive your copy.
Before you download, pick your approach — editable file or printed page. What follows covers the formats first, then the entries, then what you do afterward.
Begin at the top and move down. Enter your identifying data first, then the body of the form, then the signature block. The sequence is printed in that order because entries below frequently follow from entries above.
Check the edition before you type a word. The date appears on the face of the form; it should read not stated. When it does not, discard the file and take a fresh copy from this page. Department-level revisions replace the blank across all services simultaneously, which means an old printout can be out of step everywhere.
Look up an unclear item on the form face before anywhere else, then in not stated. Should the two texts conflict, the directive is the one you follow.
Download the form
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 2 pages and about 61 entries.
You will not be charged for any of these; the whole set is free. Before you start entering data, save the file to your computer and open it there. Fields behave far more reliably in a desktop reader than in a browser preview.
What the form asks for
- Enter request number. First two digits are calendar year followed by a dash, then the component's request number
- 2. Type of request. Press space bar to mark X in first box if initial, second box if appeal.
- 4. Action office.
- Enter date completed. Enter as four digit year, two digit month, two digit day.
- Enter total clerical hours (E-9/G S -8 and below) to the nearest 15 minutes. Search (Time spent locating the information from the files.)
- Cost. (Total hours multiplied by clerical hourly rate of $20.00)
- Review/excising (Time spent reviewing the document and determining if it must retain classification or if certain information could be excised, allowing declassification.) Enter hours.
- Cost.
- Total hours spent on other activity. (Such as duplicating, hand carrying, restoring files)
- Cost.
- Enter total professional hours to the nearest 15 minutes.. O-1, O-6/G S -9, G S -15. Search.
- Cost. (Total hours multiplied by professional hourly rate of $44.00)
- Review/excising. Total hours.
- Cost.
- Other activity, coordination or denial. Total hours.
- Cost.
- Enter total executive hours to the nearest 15 minutes. O-7, G S -16/E S 1 and above. Search.
- Cost. (Total hours multiplied by executive hourly rate of $75.00)
- Review/excising, total hours.
- Cost.
- Other, including coordination/approval/denial, total hours.
- Cost.
- Computer search. Enter total hours of machine time (not PC, desktop, or laptop), when the amount of time required to complete a search on a government owned (not leased) computer is known and hourly operating costs are available).
- Enter hourly rate for computer search time, if known.
With the form finished, route it to the office named in not stated or in your organization's own instruction. Keep a copy first. People rarely regret having one and frequently regret not having one.
Should you need a related form, look it up by its number. The DD sequence is Department-wide, which makes your search simple: no service qualifier, no branch-specific variant to track down.
Watch out for one trap here. If your instructions cite a DA form as well, do not assume the numbers are connected. DA numbering belongs to the Army alone; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or another Department office. The same number in each system means two unrelated forms, so read the prefix before you download.
Come back and check the edition next time you need this form. Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the information collected changes, or when the required notice language is updated, and none of those events reaches you directly. Verifying not stated at the moment you download is the whole defence.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2086?
- DD Form 2086, Record of Freedom of Information Processing Cost, January 2003
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?