Prepayment of fees over $250

(a) When the Board estimates or determines that allowable charges that a requester may be required to pay are likely to exceed $250.00, the Board may require a requester to make an advance payment of the entire fee before continuing to process the request.

(b) When a requester has previously failed to pay a fee charged in a timely fashion (i.e., within 30 calendar days of the date of the billing), the Board may require the requester to pay the full amount owed plus any applicable interest as provided in § 1631.14(d), and to make an advance payment of the full amount of the estimated fee before the agency begins to process a new request or a pending request from that requester.

(c) When the Board acts under paragraph (a) or (b) of this section, the administrative time limits prescribed in subsection (a)(6) of the FOIA (i.e., 20 working days from the receipt of initial requests and 20 working days from receipt of appeals from initial denial, plus permissible extensions of these time limits) will begin only after the Board has received fee payments under paragraph (a) or (b) of this section.

[55 FR 41052, Oct. 9, 1990, as amended at 63 FR 41709, Aug. 5, 1998]