After the I-526 petition is filed with USCIS, the government will issue a Form I-797, Notice of Action –Receipt Notice.  This document will contain a USCIS assigned Receipt Number.  An investor may then go online to www.uscis.gov and enter their Receipt Number to monitor the progress of the adjudication.

Many investors in China, and from around the globe, experience difficulty in receiving the USCIS Receipt Notice due to foreign mailing addresses.  When USCIS cannot deliver the Receipt Notice to an address abroad, the post office will return the Notice to USCIS as undeliverable.  In these instances, typically the USCIS Online Case Status System will show an ‘error’ message stating that the post office returned a document as undeliverable and that if the investor does not contact USCIS within 180 days, a new application/fee will be required.

It is recommended that investors contact their immigration counsel to determine whether the Receipt Notice has been received in conjunction with your I-526 petition.  The Receipt Notice isprima facie evidence that the petition remains pending adjudication, in the order received, with the Service.   Therefore, if immigration counsel has received the Receipt Notice, the above-referenced message on the USCIS Online Case Status System should be disregarded.