Understanding your MSC receipt number

[domwardbound 73]

I've seen people make attempts at understanding what the receipt number means, but don't think there's any updated information, at least, not for our group specifically, who in general who filed an I-130 since the 2nd half of last year at NBC (aka MSC). I don't know if this system corresponds to any other service centers other than NBC/MSC.

This may not provide a ton of new information, but it is interesting, and something I've always wondered about.

Here's the format you're all familiar with: MSCYYXZZZZZZZ

I've tried to pull meaning, and have provided a little bit of data analysis, but really once I explain it, I'll be interested to see what other trends or info people can find.

The numbers can be broken down into 3 groups - YY, X, and ZZZZZZZ.

• YY - fiscal year. Starting October 1, 2012, all receipt numbers have started with '13'. Further analysis that I've done is only done on MSC13, so if you have MSC12, this may not correlate to you, since MSC only started processing standalone I-130s on August 15.
• X - this can be 7, 8, or 9.

7 - refers in general to filing of I-765 forms, but also can be I-290B.

8 - refers in general to filing of I-90 forms.

9 - our group. All I-130s are here. However, this group also includes many other filing types, including I-131, I-485 and I-765.

• ZZZZZZZ - 7 digits, and is chronological. Starts with 0000001, and counts upwards (fairly) chronologically from the beginning of FY "YY".

So, what good does this do me?

Well, I've translated ZZZZZZZ to a receipt date, and that means that you can find what I-130s have been approved by receipt date, and get some additional insight on when things are/aren't being approved.

ZZZZZZZ Est. date

0050000 10/17/2012

0100000 10/26/2012

0200000 11/15/2012

0300000 12/4/2012

0400000 12/23/2012

0500000 1/11/2013

0600000 1/31/2013

0700000 2/19/2013

0800000 3/10/2013

0900000 3/29/2013

1000000 4/18/2013

1100000 5/7/2013

1200000 5/26/2013

1300000 6/14/2013

1400000 7/4/2013

1500000 7/23/2013

1600000 8/11/2013

1700000 8/30/2013

1800000 9/19/2013

How does this work? Well, let say I want to see when I-130s submitted around mid-April have been decided. I can use ZZZZZZZ of 1000000, and enter MSC1391000000, and go up/down by 1 (1000001, 1000002, 1000003, etc) until I'm able to see if (and when) I-130s from that time have been decided, or are still in initial review. I found one I-130 received around this time that was approved on July 3 - 76 days, not bad. More searching can give you more data points.

This gives a little more direction than entering random numbers. Also, if a number is decided, you can only see the decision date, not the receipt date, so it gives no concept of processing time. However, with this trending table, you should be able to correspond a decision date with a receipt date, based on the ZZZZZZZ number.

Useful? Maybe. A good way to pass the time? Eh, I'll leave that up to you, but it's at least another way we can understand the inner workings of USCIS

Edited July 9, 2013 by domwardbound

[stevie b 141]

I've seen people make attempts at understanding what the receipt number means, but don't think there's any updated information, at least, not for our group specifically, who in general who filed an I-130 since the 2nd half of last year at NBC (aka MSC). I don't know if this system corresponds to any other service centers other than NBC/MSC.

This may not provide a ton of new information, but it is interesting, and something I've always wondered about.

Here's the format you're all familiar with: MSCYYXZZZZZZZ

I've tried to pull meaning, and have provided a little bit of data analysis, but really once I explain it, I'll be interested to see what other trends or info people can find.

The numbers can be broken down into 3 groups - YY, X, and ZZZZZZZ.

• YY - fiscal year. Starting October 1, 2012, all receipt numbers have started with '13'. Further analysis that I've done is only done on MSC13, so if you have MSC12, this may not correlate to you, since MSC only started processing standalone I-130s on August 15.
• X - this can be 7, 8, or 9.

7 - refers in general to filing of I-765 forms, but also can be I-290B.

8 - refers in general to filing of I-90 forms.

9 - our group. All I-130s are here. However, this group also includes many other filing types, including I-131, I-485 and I-765.

• ZZZZZZZ - 7 digits, and is chronological. Starts with 0000001, and counts upwards (fairly) chronologically from the beginning of FY "YY".

So, what good does this do me?

Well, I've translated ZZZZZZZ to a receipt date, and that means that you can find what I-130s have been approved by receipt date, and get some additional insight on when things are/aren't being approved.

ZZZZZZZ Est. date

0050000 10/17/2012

0100000 10/26/2012

0200000 11/15/2012

0300000 12/4/2012

0400000 12/23/2012

0500000 1/11/2013

0600000 1/31/2013

0700000 2/19/2013

0800000 3/10/2013

0900000 3/29/2013

1000000 4/18/2013

1100000 5/7/2013

1200000 5/26/2013

1300000 6/14/2013

1400000 7/4/2013

1500000 7/23/2013

1600000 8/11/2013

1700000 8/30/2013

1800000 9/19/2013

How does this work? Well, let say I want to see when I-130s submitted around mid-April have been decided. I can use ZZZZZZZ of 1000000, and enter MSC1391000000, and go up/down by 1 (1000001, 1000002, 1000003, etc) until I'm able to see if (and when) I-130s from that time have been decided, or are still in initial review. I found one I-130 received around this time that was approved on July 3 - 76 days, not bad. More searching can give you more data points.

This gives a little more direction than entering random numbers. Also, if a number is decided, you can only see the decision date, not the receipt date, so it gives no concept of processing time. However, with this trending table, you should be able to correspond a decision date with a receipt date, based on the ZZZZZZZ number.

Useful? Maybe. A good way to pass the time? Eh, I'll leave that up to you, but it's at least another way we can understand the inner workings of USCIS

totally applaud your due diligence and this would have worked a year ago.. but now.. not so much

after nbc, the file is routed to the local office closest to you

all the offices have different work loads and different approval timelines.. Washington dc for example is telling folks almost a year.. mine, less than three months..

if you can find the magic for the local offices with all that time u are spending on this, now THAT would be golden for the members lol

[domwardbound 73]

totally applaud your due diligence and this would have worked a year ago.. but now.. not so much

after nbc, the file is routed to the local office closest to you

all the offices have different work loads and different approval timelines.. Washington dc for example is telling folks almost a year.. mine, less than three months..

if you can find the magic for the local offices with all that time u are spending on this, now THAT would be golden for the members lol

You're not wrong haha.. Any my wife is in a different country - there's no such thing as mis-spent time.

Don't worry, I've crunched numbers on local offices too. The NBC-to-local office transfer date is the key. If there was a way to get some data on that, everything else would fall into place.

[TBoneTX 43,017]

*** Thread moved from CR-1 Process forum to USCIS Service Centers -- topic involves analysis of USCIS codes. ***

[fcat 79]

I have my MSC number and the exact date the file was transferred from NBC to Washington DC if that's any help for your workings out ?

[stevie b 141]

You're not wrong haha.. Any my wife is in a different country - there's no such thing as mis-spent time.

Don't worry, I've crunched numbers on local offices too. The NBC-to-local office transfer date is the key. If there was a way to get some data on that, everything else would fall into place.

well you got one reply already and check my signature line and you have two..

[domwardbound 73]

I have my MSC number and the exact date the file was transferred from NBC to Washington DC if that's any help for your workings out ?

Let's give it a shot - couldn't find info in your profile/posts. What day was it transferred?

[fcat 79]

Let's give it a shot - couldn't find info in your profile/posts. What day was it transferred?

Just sent you a PM with the details, wasnt sure it was ok to put my MSC umber in public ?

[stevie b 141]

since your post is getting lots of action I figured this would be a good place to put it.

I received this email from nsc/msc this past week responding to my requests back in may

this is a newly created email address directly to the Missouri/Nebraska service center

NSCFollowup.NCSC@uscis.dhs.gov

[Exocet 88]

Well, this post just made me more frustrated! I started by doing ~20 receipt numbers ahead of me... and they were all in card production. I checked at least 30 after me, and again.. all in card production or work authorization was approved. And my receipt number STILL says that it is not in the system! ARGH!

[domwardbound 73]

since your post is getting lots of action I figured this would be a good place to put it.

I received this email from nsc/msc this past week responding to my requests back in may

this is a newly created email address directly to the Missouri/Nebraska service center

NSCFollowup.NCSC@uscis.dhs.gov

I thought that MSC/NBC and NSC are two different locations? Haven't heard that Nebraska Service Center was doing I-130 petitions - thought they were all going to MSC. Interesting though, thanks!

[domwardbound 73]

Well, this post just made me more frustrated! I started by doing ~20 receipt numbers ahead of me... and they were all in card production. I checked at least 30 after me, and again.. all in card production or work authorization was approved. And my receipt number STILL says that it is not in the system! ARGH!

If you want to PM me your receipt number, I can help get some info for you. There's no identifiable information, but we can communicate and hopefully I should be able to get some info for you on other I-130 petitions submitted at the same time as yours.

If not, I can give it a shot now..

Based on your posted NOA1 date of Jan 31, I'd estimate your number to be something around MSC1390556003, which if you check is still under initial review. However, MSC1390556038 is showing as completed on June 13. I also found petitions submitted on Jan 31 that were approved on April 25, as well as July 2. There were others that were still showing as pending.

My conclusion is that petitions accepted on Jan 31 have for the most part been processed, with some at least as early as April.

From this, at least you can know that on an average nationwide basis, Jan 31 NOA1 is likely to have been approved. If your NOA1 is around this time but hasn't been processed, I would guess that your local office is not going as quickly as the national average, which is about 20% of all pending petitions at the end of a month being approved in the next month. You can check the USCIS site to see your local office's I-130 processing volume and trends.

Sorry that it's not an exact answer - I try to pull meaning from a mix of unreliable/unverified data entered by VJ users, and USCIS processing data that is posted with a near 2-month lag. But the more data I get from people in this topic, the more I can fine-tune what I use to estimate dates!

[alala23 4]

Thank you so much for posting this!

Based on the information provided, I was able to do a little more "grunt work" and record NOA2 approval dates for some random receipt numbers in the ZZZZ gaps.

Here it is: http://i.imgur.com/JZl146G.png

My wife and I got married in NZ in July, and both of us are here right now waiting for this thing to get through. We got our NOA1 on August 6, 2013. Doing this analysis really helped us estimate certain timelines since we were feeling down after seeing the "10 month" estimates.

If anyone has more information, or wants to collaborate on more such grunt work, please PM me!

[suzannewon 0]

Receipt number 8 is for I-90 ?

I applied I-90 to replace my permanent green card without expiration date.

My Receipt number is :

MSC14-9-XXXXXXX

[suzannewon 0]

Receipt number 8 is for I-90 ?

I applied I-90 to replace my permanent green card without expiration date.

My Receipt number is :

MSC14-9-XXXXXXX