If your employer has submitted a petition and filed an H-1B for you, you can check your case status by providing the receipt number to the USCIS on their website. USCIS now introduces e-request expansion providing customers with a web-based tool to inquire about the petitions filed.

How you used to check your case status?

You can check your case status for the petition filed by your employer by providing your receipt number at https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard.do

When you check the status of your petition filed based on the receipt number, it would give you the information regarding at which step your file is currently at and all the possible steps it needs to go through during processing.

You can also go ahead and register at https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/selectusertype.jsp to receive automatic case updates by email or text messages.

How to search for Processing Times?

You can check the processing time at the service center your petition was submitted at the same link mentioned above by providing the form type (I-129 for H-1B), form sub-type and office location (service center).

What to do when your application goes beyond mentioned processing times?

Some of the candidates would definitely face such a situation where the processing time for their application would rather go beyond the average time specified for that service center in the USCIS website. USCIS introduced a web-based tool by expanding their existing services offered by the e-Request system to support such issues.

According to USCIS, “e-Request is a web-based tool that allows you to place an inquiry with USCIS for certain applications and petitions. You may make an inquiry on selected forms that are beyond posted processing times or selected forms where you did not receive an Application Support Center (ASC) appointment notice or other notice. You can also create an inquiry for a notice you received from a Service Center with a typographical error.

To place an inquiry, you will need your receipt number. If you do not have your receipt number contact the USCIS Customer Service at 1-800-375-5283 or 1-800-767-1833 (TTY).”

The e-Request service provided by the USCIS has been effective since November 19 2012. USCIS allow you to create a service request for all forms to either inquire about the status of your application or petition if it is outside of the normal processing time.  You can also notify USCIS regarding an administrative error in respect to a notice or document sent by the USCIS.

Submit an e-Request:

You can submit an e-Request, given you have the receipt number at https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Case.do. You may need to wait at least 30 days, if you want to notify to the USCIS regarding an already initiated service request.

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