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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
We have recently changed our phone service. If you have trouble reaching us, we apologize and appreciate your patience. You are welcome to check out this website for information. It may have the answers you’re looking for.
If you want to file a charge about job discrimination, please go to Filing a Charge of Employment Discrimination to find out how much time you have to file. There are time limits to file a charge. In many states that time limit is 300 days from the date you knew about the harm or negative job action, but in other states it is 180 days. If you are sure that you have at least two months to file a charge before your time runs out, you may use our online screening tool and follow the directions to figure out if your situation is covered by the laws we enforce. The online screening tool may suggest that you fill out a questionnaire and mail it to an EEOC office. If this happens, the EEOC will contact you after we receive the questionnaire. If you are unable to print a questionnaire, please continue to try to reach us by phone at 1-866-408-8075. (Note: The online assessment tool will be unavailable each week for up to 30 minutes, Saturday evening or Sunday morning.)
If you are concerned that your time to file a charge will run out within two months (60 days) and you want to file a charge, please fax a letter to the EEOC office closest to you. You should do this right away. If you do not file within the required number of days, your time will expire and cannot be restored by the EEOC. In the letter, please tell us each of the following things:
Please note that the EEOC will consider your letter to be a charge and will tell the employer that you filed a charge.
Remember: if you are unsure that you want to file a charge that will be served on the employer, you may go to the online screening tool.
This page was last modified on December 20, 2007.