If you are living in US and applying for H4 Visa extension to extend your stay in US or applying for Change of Status (COS) to H-4 Visa, you file form I-539 with USCIS. As they process your H4 application package, they send out a H4 Case Receipt Notice, that has information on your filing and the applicant details. You can use the information in the Receipt notice to track your petition online. It looks like below. You need to review all of the information in there to be sure, it is correct to avoid future issues.
Sample H4 Visa Extension / Change of Status Receipt Notice – I797C from USCIS
Below are the various fields and what they mean on the H4 receipt notice.
- Receipt Number : This is the actual H4 extension or change of status (COS) receipt number, that you can use to track the status of the your application on USCIS website.
- Case Type : This indicates the type of application and form used that the receipt notice is tied to. In the context of H4 Extension or Change of Status, it should be “I-539, APPLICATION TO EXTEND / CHANGE NONIMMIGRANT STATUS”
- Received Date : This is the date when USCIS actually received your H4 application package. Usually, this is the date when they signed and received your package from mail and official date of receipt of your application package.
- Notice Date : This is the date when the H4 notice was generated by USCIS system
- Priority Date : This will be usually blank for H4 applications.
- Applicant : This will be the name of the actual H4 Applicant, who filed the extension or change of status. You need to ensure the spelling and everything is correct here.
- Beneficiary : This filed will also have the H4 applicant name
- Page : if the receipt notice is more than page, you will see 1 of 2 on first page. In H4 receipt context, it will be 1 of 1 as the receipt notice is only one page.
- Name and Mailing Address : Below these fields, you will see a box with Name and address of the applicant
- Notice Type, Fee : You should see Notice Type as “Receipt Notice” and Amount received the total amount you paid for the H4 Application. It would also include the Biometrics Fee. E.g : If you filed for one person it would be $370 + $85 = $455 ( Application Fee + H4 Biometrics Fee )
- Beneficiary(ies): At the bottom of the page, you will see the details of the applicant or multiple applications with details of below
- Name : Name of the applicant
- DOB : Date of Birth of the applicant
- COB : Country of Birth of the applicant
- Class : Usually this will be blank
- USCIS Office Address, Customer Service Number : You will also see the office address that is processing your H4 application and the customer service number with barcode at the end. You can contact them for any questions related to your case.
