Assessment request. To initiate an assessment, each claimant or TAC must submit a FAS or a TAC Certification to BIS. TACs are authorized to certify foreign availability only to controlled countries. Claimants can allege foreign availability for either controlled or non-controlled countries.

Denied license assessment. A claimant whose license application BIS has denied, or for which it has issued a letter of intent to deny on national security grounds, may request that BIS initiate a denied license assessment by submitting a Foreign Availability Submission (FAS) within 90 days after denial of the license. As part of its submission, the claimant must request that the specified license application be approved on the grounds of foreign availability. The evidence must relate to the particular export as described on the license application and to the alleged comparable item. If foreign availability is found, the Secretary will approve the license for the specific items, countries, and quantities listed on the application. The denied license assessment procedure, however, is not intended to result in the removal of the U.S. export control on an item by incrementally providing a country with amounts that, taken together, would constitute a sufficient quantity of an item. The Secretary will not approve on foreign availability grounds a denied license if the approval of such license would itself render the U.S. export control ineffective in achieving its purpose. In the case of a positive determination, the Secretary will determine whether a decontrol assessment is warranted. If so, then BIS will initiate a decontrol assessment.

Decontrol assessment. (1) Any claimant may at any time request that BIS initiate a decontrol assessment by a FAS to BIS alleging foreign availability to any country or countries.

A TAC may request that BIS initiate a decontrol assessment at any time by submitting a TAC Certification to BIS that there is foreign availability to a controlled country for items that fall within the area of the TAC's technical expertise.

The Secretary, on his/her own initiative, may initiate a decontrol assessment.

BIS mailing address. All foreign availability submissions and TAC certifications should be submitted to: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Room H-1093, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20230.