USCIS accepts various kinds of H1B petitions, such as new H1B cap-subject petitions, petitions for H1B extensions, H1B petitions for the transfer of companies, and H1B cap-exempt petitions. One thing is common: they all receive an H1B Receipt Notice from USCIS indicating they received the H1B petition.
When you look at the USCIS-issued Receipt notice for the H1B petition, it would have a receipt number or case number. This number can be used to track the petition’s status with USCIS.
If you are new to the process, looking at the long number and guessing what that number means can be puzzling. In this article, we will cover what the H1B Case Receipt Number or Petition Number indicates by looking at each of the letters in the H1B Case Number.
Article Contents hideAs a background, if you are a first-time H1B applicant, you will need to go through the H1B Visa registration Lottery process, and only if you are selected in the H1B lottery, then you would be eligible to file an H1B petition with USCIS. Also, the H1B petition can only be filed by a Company. As an applicant, you cannot file the H1B petition alone.
USCIS sends a “Form I-797C, Notice of Action” after they receive the H1B Petition. This form is called the H1B Receipt Notice. It is a generic form used to notify the receipt of a petition or application, but the Class requested field indicates whether it is a receipt notice for an H1B petition or not.
As part of sending the H1B receipt notice, USCIS assigns a unique case receipt number for every H1B petition they receive. The receipt number consists of 13-digit alphanumeric characters and typically starts with three alphabets, like WAC or EAC, based on where it was filed.
This 13-digit alphanumeric number is called the H1B receipt or H1B Petition Number. It appears at the top of the H1B Receipt Notice (Form I-797C, Notice of Action), as shown in the screenshot below.
People sometimes use the term “H1B Petition Number” and ask for the “H1B receipt number”. This can be confusing if you are new to it. The “H1B Petition Number” and the “H1B Receipt Number” or “H1B Case Receipt Number” mean the same thing and are often used interchangeably.
On some websites, you may be asked to fill out the H1B Petition Number; in some cases, you may be asked to enter the H1B receipt number or USCIS H1B Case number. In all these cases, you would use the same 13-dight alphanumeric number on the H1B receipt or approval notice. If you are filling out the H1B Visa Stamping application, you will asked to fill out the Petition Number, which is nothing but the H1B Case Receipt Number.
Of the 13-digit alphanumeric characters that are part of the H1B Case Receipt Number or Petition Number, each set of characters has a specific meaning. We need to break them out properly to understand them correctly.
We should break down the H1B Case Number into sets of characters grouped like below:
Now, let’s look at each of the groups of characters.
The first three characters indicate where the H1B petition was filed.
The following two digits indicate the year when it was filed. It is not the fiscal year but rather the calendar year when the petition was filed. Do not try to read something that says WAC2023XXXX to think it is related to the year 2023, you should only look at the following two letters after the first three characters.
The next three digits indicate the computer working day of the USCIS fiscal year that starts from October 1 st . It indicates the computer workday does not include weekends and holidays. USCIS computers do not work on weekends and USA National holidays :-).
October 1 st is when the fiscal year starts for USCIS. If your H1B was filed on October 1 st , it would be 001. It is a little tricky with this number; computer workday indicates only working days and not weekends.
For example, if it is October 20th, it would be the 16 th working day or something like that…For April 12th, it would be 134 as the weekends and federal holidays are taken out. You can use websites like TimeAndDate to compute that number.
The following five digits is the actual case number and is assigned based on some internal USCIS logic. There is no guarantee that it would start with 0001 and go in sequence. Sometimes, it may start with 5; sometimes, it may be with other digits as well.
Below is a nice visual explaining the H1B Receipt Number format. It is the same as any other USCIS Receipt Number format.
After you receive your H1B Visa Receipt case number, all you would have to do is to track the status on USCIS website. Read How to Check H1B Petition Status on USCIS website.
If you were to file H1B visa petition under premium processing, you would have received the case number and a confirmation email that your petition was received by USCIS and it is under processing. Usually your attorney or your employer would get that information. Once your case is approved, similar email with approval status would be updated via email. A hard copy would be emailed after the emails to the address specified in petition.
If you were to file your H1B visa petition under regular processing, you would not necessarily get an email from USCIS, rather you would get a hard copy receipt mailed to your employer or attorney. Also, decision information would be mailed to your attorney or employer after the decision.
You can read Steps after H1B Lottery – Flow Chart to know more on the next steps
Did I miss anything? Any other thoughts to add?
