I am totally confused on how to start to count my NOA1 date. My timeline is following:
5/16/07-I mailed my petition
5/18/07-it was received by CSC
I called CSC at the end of June to find out any info, they gave me my WAC #and told that they will mail my hard copy of NOA1. I was able to see from that time my account online.
It was said "On June 5, we received your petition, blah, blah..."
So I assumed that my NOA1 date is June ,5th. However I still haven't got my NOA1 in a mail. I called them again on July,20 asking about NOA1. And guess what? I got my NOA1 in a mail today (actually I got two letters with NOA1 with 2 different dates) One is -July, 25 in the Notice Date field. Other one is with July, 26 in the Notice Date field.
Now I fully regret on insisting of sending me a note .
Does it mean that my NOA1 date is July, 26 instead of what it reads on their site about June, 5?? And despite me sending the petition on May, 16??
Could anyone clarify it for me, please!

NOA is notice of action. NOA1 notifies you they received your petition. Your NOA1 date is June 5.

I am in the same situation. I have 4 NOA1's

7-9-2007
7-9-2007
7-25-2007
7-26-2007
CSC received my i-129f on 5-25-2007

I have called and they tell me that 5-25-2007 is the date that I should use to track my progress.
was told that the NOA are sent automatic by computer. But the computer did not send out . You can go to the USCIS webite
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/Up...stems062607.pdf
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/I7...esCSC071107.pdf

NOTICE DATE is the date the physical paper (I-797 or I-797C) was printed, and is basically irrelevant to your Visa Process.

On the I-797C (NOA1), the RECEIVED DATE is the date your petition is prioritized by. That is the date that should be entered in the VisaJourney.com timeline.

YanJeff, your NOA1 DATE is 05-25-2007.

And Olya2007, pushbrk is correct, your NOA1 DATE is June 5th.

Ah, That makes perfect since.
Thanks bszoom42!

What a relief!!! It feels much better with NOA1 date of June, 5, then July 25!!!
Thanks a lot for your responses!!!

I think of it like this: Helps me to keep it straight with all those darn dates!

MAILING DATE: date you mailed the application.
ARRIVED DATE: Date the Postal Carrier (ie US Posal Service, of FedEx, etc) delivered the application to the USCIS
RECEIVED DATE: Date the USCIS entered and "RECEIVED" the application into their system (THIS IS THE NOA1 DATE and as others have said is used for PRIORITIZATION and PROCESSING reasons.)
NOTICE DATE: Date the Paper Notice was created - in this example it is an NOA1 notice, but is applicable to any kind of notice correspondance.

So for the OP it would be:

May 16 - MAILED DATE
May 18 - ARRIVED DATE
June 5 - RECEIVED DATE
July 25 - NOTICE DATE (1st Notice)
July 26 - NOTICE DATE (2nd Notice)