OFAC Basics: Requesting Guidance

Thank you for tuning into this video by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. In this basics video, we'll show you how you can reach out to us using the OFAC compliance hotline when you have questions about complying with OFAC sanctions or seek guidance on OFAC processes. Before submitting a question, review our FAQ page, which has answers to OFAC's most frequently asked questions, such as FAQ 5, which explains how to determine whether you've identified a valid match to OFAC's sanctions list, or FAQ 10, which explains where to find lists of countries or people sanctioned by the United States. We also encourage you to view the other videos we have available, such as our video on what to do once your funds have been blocked, or how to use OFAC's sanctions list search tool. If you don't see an answer to your question, you can ask us your question by submitting a query online using the OFAC compliance hotline. To access the hotline, please visit OFAC's website at ofac.treasury.gov forward slash OFAC dash compliance dash hotline. You can also navigate there from our home page by clicking at the top where it says contact us, or at the bottom of the page where it says contact OFAC. On our compliance hotline page, you'll see some links to resources that address some of the such as how to check OFAC's sanctions list, where to apply for a license, or where to submit a required report to OFAC. No need to submit a hotline query if you're looking for one of these resources. Just click the link and you'll find what you need. But if these resources don't answer your question, then scroll down to the big green box and click the small blue compliance hotline button at the bottom of that box to submit your question. Clicking that button takes you to the OFAC compliance hotline query page where you can submit your question. The first thing you will see is a disclaimer. Be sure to review this because it contains information about our automated email confirmation process, the nature of the guidance OFAC provides through this hotline, and other important information. As we fill out the compliance hotline query form, we're going to pretend that our name is Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. You may have noticed some of the fields in this form have a red asterisk before the field name. These are required fields. And Mr. Hamilton is reaching out to OFAC with a question about complying with U.S. sanctions against Iran. In the organization field, you can enter the name of the company or organization you represent if you're asking the question on their behalf. You can hover over the information icon here for an explanation if you're unsure what to include in the field. Since we're submitting this query on behalf of ourselves, we'll leave the organization field blank. For the telephone number field, you should put the number where OFAC can contact you. The only valid characters for these fields are numbers and certain special characters that are on screen now. For the telephone type, we're going to say this is our mobile or cell phone for this example. The email address is one of our required fields and it's very important. This is the email where you will receive an automated confirmation once you submit your question through the OFAC compliance hotline. If you submit a question and do not receive an email confirmation within one hour, you may need to check your email span filter. The confirmation email will include a unique OFAC assigned query number which you can use to track your question. This next field, related query number, is where you can include a query number that you received from a previous submission if the question you want to ask is related to that earlier query, like a follow-up question or a point of clarification. It is important to note that this field only accepts OFAC compliance hotline query numbers. This system does not allow you to check the status of a license application. To check the status of a license application, you should visit the OFAC licensing portal and be sure to check out our video on OFAC licensing. Next is another required field and this one is very important, the OFAC sanctions programs or regulatory requirement field. This is important because your selection here will help us identify who in OFAC is the most appropriate person to review your question and contact you to provide guidance. You will want to select the sanctions program or programs most relevant to your question. To select a program, simply click an option in the available box, then click the arrow pointing to the right so that it moves into the chosen box. You can move the option back into the available box by clicking the arrow pointing to the left. In our example, Alexander Hamilton has a question about sanctions against Iran, so he would choose Iran sanctions. But let's say your question is not about a specific sanctions program. Maybe it's about OFAC's enforcement process or reporting requirements more generally. For questions like those, you can select OFAC reporting procedures and penalties regulations. Or if your question is even more general, like asking OFAC to speak at a conference, you can select not applicable. We're almost done. Next is a query field, which is another required field where you would write your question. Be sure to provide as much specific detail as possible about the relevant circumstances and specific parties involved, as well as any additional information that might be helpful. In this case, we'll type, are there any authorizations in OFAC's Iran sanctions program? If we had any documents to include with our question that might be relevant, we would click the upload files button. If you do include an attachment, be sure to tell us briefly what's in the attachment by completing the attachment description field. When finished with that, we click the blue submit button and we're done. You should now be looking at a confirmation page that shows the unique OFAC assigned query number associated with your question and the date and time it was submitted. You'll also receive a confirmation email too. To save or print a copy of this information, click on the print save button. A new window will open with your query and you can follow the standard steps to print or save. If you have any follow-up questions or need to add some other information to your question, you'll want to submit a new request and include the query number you just received in the related query number field to help us find the earlier related query. Once OFAC receives your request, we will review your question and if appropriate, respond with guidance as soon as possible or refer your question to the appropriate personnel within OFAC. For more information about the OFAC compliance hotline and for answers to your most frequently asked questions, please be sure to visit the FAQ page on our website and check out our other OFAC videos linked below. Thanks for watching.