Interfolio has designed a secure process for Letter Writers to submit letters of recommendation to Interfolio on behalf of their students and advisees (Interfolio Fileholders). By using Interfolio, Writers are able to provide a letter once. The letter is stored in the Interfolio system and available for use by the Fileholder as needed. Once the letter of recommendation has been added to the Interfolio system, the Fileholder can see the document title but cannot see the contents of the letter.

When an Interfolio Fileholder needs to have a letter of recommendation submitted on their behalf, the Fileholder logs into their Interfolio account to create a letter-writing request. This request serves as a signal to the Interfolio system that someone other than the Fileholder will be adding a document to that Fileholder’s account.

To connect the Fileholder and the Writer, the Interfolio system generates a unique document ID so that the pairing between Letter Writer and Fileholder can be a seamless, secure and automated process. Whether the Fileholder sends the request to the Letter Writer by email or provides the Letter Writer with the document request form on paper, the request will include the unique ID that will ensure that the letter of recommendation ends up in the correct account and is labeled with the correct document title.

It is important to note that a separate request and document ID must accompany each letter submitted to Interfolio. If a Fileholder requests three letters from the same Writer, that Fileholder must provide the letter writer with three different request forms with three different document IDs. This way, each letter will be saved as its own document with its own document title so a Fileholder, who cannot see the contents of the letter, will be able to tell which letter is intended to serve which purpose.

Following is the process by which Writers can submit letters of recommendation to Interfolio:

1. Receive a letter-writing request from an Interfolio Fileholder. This request may be in the form of an email or may be on a piece of paper.

2. Write the letter. 
-->The letter can be printed on letterhead and signed.
-->The letter can be saved on electronic letterhead and signed with a digital image of your signature.

3. Submit the letter to Interfolio
-->Letters submitted to Interfolio on paper will be submitted by mail. Interfolio will scan and upload the letter into the Interfolio account of the person who requested the letter from you.
-->Electronic documents may be uploaded directly into the Interfolio system.

Once you have completed this process, the Fileholder will receive a system notification from Interfolio that the letter has been submitted. The Fileholder may then include that letter with application materials.

For a complete step-by-step guide to using Interfolio as a fileholder, download the Interfolio Letter Writer User Guide (PDF).