How to: Upload a Confidential Letter to an Online Application System
With a Dossier Deliver account, you can upload confidential letters to online application systems.
In some cases, an online application system will ask for your letter writer's contact information so they can email a link your writer can use to upload a letter to the website. If this is a requirement, you can input an Interfolio-generated "document email address" in place of your letter writers email. This will allow Interfolio to upload the letter directly to the application without bothering your letter writer.
Other online application systems provide you with a link (URL) to give your letter writer to a website where your recommender can upload a letter of recommendation. We refer to these types of deliveries as "Confidential Letter Uploads." This article will show you how to upload confidential letters to an online application system.
Remember, that in order to upload a letter to an online application system, you must first have the letter in your Dossier account. See here for more information on requesting a confidential letter of recommendation through Interfolio.
Interfolio has a 1-3 day turnaround time from the point we receive the request to upload your letter.
If an institution asks for information during the confidential letter upload process, the interfolio agent will enter Interfolio's contact information.
For medical and dental school applicants: if you're applying to AACOMAS or AADSAS, then this article will explain how to upload letters to the online application systems you will use. If you're applying to AMCAS or TMDSAS, then delivery instructions can be found here:
Use Dossier Deliver to Send Letters of Recommendation to AMCAS or TMDSAS
For confidential letter uploads, we can only send letters of recommendation that are in your Dossier account. These are letter you have already requested, and that have been uploaded to your Dossier.
If you have not already requested a letter through Interfolio, you will need to follow these directions on how to request a confidential letter of recommendation through Interfolio.
1.1. Go to the "Letters" page from the navigation bar
1.2. Check the status of the letter you want to send
Only letters with the status "Complete" can be uploaded to an online application system.
If you need to request a new recommendation, click the "Request a Letter" button, and follow the prompts
When your recommendation comes in it will appear in your Dossier and you can continue with the instructions below.
See here if you need detailed instructions on how to request letters of recommendation through your Interfolio account.
2. Go to your "Deliveries" page
3. Click "New Delivery"
4. Click "Confidential Letter Upload"
5. Select the method that your online application uses to request and receive letters of recommendation, and click "Next"
Some online systems require you to enter the email addresses of the people who will write your letters, and some provide a link to a website where your letter writers can upload letters of recommendation.
Remember, you can only upload letters that have already been added to your Dossier.
1. Select "You enter your recommenders' email addresses and click "Next"
2. Select the letter(s) you want to send and click "Continue"
This opens the "Send Requests" page:
3. Log onto the online application system in another tab or window, and navigate to the location where you are asked to enter the recommender's email address
Below is a sample from an online application system:
4. Open Dossier again, and click "Copy" (to the right of the page) to save the special email address of the letter to your computer's clipboard
5. Open the online application again, and "Paste" the document email address in the field where the application asks for your recommender's address
6. Send Request
You will probably be asked to review and confirm, then send your request, something like the image below:
7. Back in Dossier, click "Continue"
8. You're all done!
Once we receive the request, we will upload the letter from your Dossier to the online application system.
Depending on the system, it may take Interfolio a day or more to receive the request.
Some systems require the uploader to answer additional questions in order to upload a letter. We will leave those questions empty or select "N/A" when possible. However, if the questions are required and we cannot answer them, we will cancel the request and notify you.
Follow the instructions below, and we will upload the letter you want to send to the URL you were provided.
1. Select "You provide a link to your recommenders"
2. Enter the name of the organization and the URL you were given, and click "Next"
3. Select the letters you want to send, and click "Continue"
4. Review, Confirm, and click "Submit Delivery"
You will see a confirmation message confirming your letter upload request has been successfully submitted
You can check the status of your confidential letter uploads on the "Deliveries" page
Scroll down the page to see "Sent Deliveries," and note the "Status" column
Why hasn't my online application delivery been created yet?
Occasionally, online application requests from third party application systems do not reach Interfolio. This can happen for a few reasons:
- The application hasn't processed your letter writer data yet, and therefore hasn't sent us a request yet
- The document email address was entered incorrectly
- A special character (like an accent) is preventing us from processing the email request correctly
- An error occurred within the third-party application
What you should do:
- Contact us immediately at help@interfolio.com to let us know. We may be able to match an orphan request received by our server to your account
- If we can't match your request with your account, we will ask you to try to re-request the letter on the application system
- If you can't re-request a letter, Interfolio will need to contact the receiving institution to figure out the best way to resolve the situation
Please monitor your pending deliveries closely and let us know if you're expecting a delivery that hasn't come in yet.
How to resend cancelled a delivery to an online application system
If your online application delivery was canceled and you have resolved the issue (purchased more delivery credits, reactivated your account, etc) than you can resubmit the letter from your deliveries screen.
Navigate to your deliveries screen
From the dashboard, select the deliveries button.
