Whether you want to schedule a meeting at your representative’s D.C. or local office, keep in mind:
Be politely persistent! Congressional offices receive countless calls and emails every day, so remember to follow up with your point of contact throughout the process of scheduling your meeting. Even if you are making an appointment in the D.C. office, your representative or senator is unlikely to attend. You will usually be meeting with a legislative staff member. Do not discount the importance of meeting with staffers; legislative staff have a good deal of influence and oftentimes more expertise on specific issues than your representative. Members of Congress rely on their staff to advise them on legislative issues, so staff-level meetings are always worthwhile.  For more advice on how to arrange D.C. and in-district meetings, you can consult the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) website.
Washington, D.C. Office
Congress is intermittently in session between September-July, so Members of Congress will be in their D.C. offices during those months. This website shows which days the House and the Senate are in session (Select the current Congress and click the “Days in Session” link). Before scheduling a meeting, confirm that your representative will be in D.C. by checking if Congress is in session. Consult your representative’s website to see how far in advance you should schedule your meeting. Your representative’s website will typically indicate the best ways to make an appointment with them. Oftentimes you can submit a meeting request form through their website. When submitting a form, make sure you are very clear about why you are meeting and who will be at the meeting.  If the office does not use an online request form, you should call the office and ask for the contact information of either the scheduler or the foreign policy staffer. Contact information for D.C. offices can be found on the Senate Directory website and the House Directory website. Your email to the scheduler or staffer should include your name, town, the reason for the meeting, the date(s) and time(s) you are available, and the names of people attending the meeting with you. The subject line of the email should read, “Constituent Meeting Request for [Date]” or “Constituent Meeting Request on [Reason for Meeting]”. If you don’t hear back within a week, you can try calling the office directly.  If you happen to be in DC and couldn’t schedule a meeting in advance, you can always drop into an office and ask to meet with a foreign policy staffer.
District Office
District or state offices can sometimes respond more promptly to mail and emails than their counterparts in DC. Typically, district or state offices can process written mail much quicker than DC offices.  Members of Congress are typically in-district during the month of August and around the holidays. Check their status with your district office if you want to schedule a meeting while they are near your local office. Consult the member's website to see how far in advance you should schedule your meeting. Your representative’s website will typically indicate the best ways to make an appointment with them. Oftentimes you can submit a meeting request form through their website. When submitting a form, make sure you are very clear about why you are meeting and who will be at the meeting.  If the office does not use an online request form, you should call the office and ask for the contact information of either the scheduler or a staffer. Your email to the scheduler or staffer should include your name, town, the reason for the meeting, the date(s) and time(s) you are available, and the names of people attending the meeting with you. The subject line of the email should read, “Constituent Meeting Request for [Date]” or “Constituent Meeting Request on [Reason for Meeting]”. If you don’t hear back within a week, you can try calling the office directly. District offices focus on different services than D.C. offices, and are typically designed to deal with constituent services. Because of this, many in-district offices don’t have a legislative portfolio. However, cultivating relationships with members of your district office is an effective way to advocate your policy positions.