The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that five of its offices have launched a new Online Inquiry and Appointment System. The system will allow individuals to electron­ically submit initial inquiries and requests for intake interviews with the agency. Initial inquiries and intake interviews are typically the first steps for individuals seeking to file a charge of discrimination with EEOC.

The EEOC receives about 200,000 inquiries per year through the mail, in person, and by phone. About 90,000 of those inquiries become formal charges of discrimination filed with the agency, making the charge-filing process the agency's most common interaction with the public. This new online system is part of the EEOC's ACT Digital initiative to improve service to the public, streamline the administrative process, and reduce the use of paper submissions and files.

The EEOC launched the new Online Inquiry and Appointment System on March 13 in the following five offices: Charlotte, Chicago, New Orleans, Phoenix and Seattle. People living or working within 100 miles of these EEOC offices will be able to use the online system to submit an inquiry and schedule an intake interview. Individuals can access the Online Inquiry and Appointment System at https://publicportal.eeoc.gov/portal/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPortal%2f or from EEOC's website at https://www.eeoc.gov/employees/online_inquiry.cfm. The agency plans to evaluate the public's experience with the new system in these five offices prior to a nationwide rollout later this fiscal year.