USCIS Case Status Lookup

Purpose

Given a USCIS receipt number (13 characters: a 3-letter service-center prefix + 10 digits, e.g. EAC2290098765), look it up on the public USCIS "Case Status Online" tool and return the current case status headline, the human-readable status / next-step paragraph, the form type when surfaced (I-130, I-485, N-400, I-765, …), the service-center code, the last-updated date if shown, and the canonical case-status URL. Read-only — this skill only reads the status page; it never signs in, files, or modifies anything. No authentication is required for the public lookup.

When to Use

"What's the status of USCIS receipt IOE0912345678?"
Monitoring a pending immigration case (I-130/I-485/I-765/N-400/etc.) for status changes by receipt number.
Bulk status checks across a list of receipt numbers (one lookup per receipt; see gotchas on rate/anti-bot).
Any flow that needs the raw status text + next-step paragraph without logging into a USCIS account.

Workflow

There is no usable API, JSON endpoint, or URL deep-link for this task — a real stealth browser is mandatory. The site is a Next.js single-page app fronted by a Cloudflare managed challenge (Cf-Mitigated: challenge) plus Cloudflare Turnstile; a cookieless HTTP GET/fetch (even over a residential proxy) returns a 403 "Just a moment…" interstitial, not the form. The submit itself is a Next.js server action (POST to https://egov.uscis.gov/ carrying the receipt_number field), not a documented endpoint you can call directly. So drive it as a browser:

Create a stealth + residential-proxy session. Both flags are required to clear Cloudflare:

sid=$(browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive --verified --proxies \
  | node -e "let s='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>s+=c).on('end',()=>process.stdout.write(JSON.parse(s).id))")
export BROWSE_SESSION="$sid"

Open the tool. Navigate to https://egov.uscis.gov/ (the legacy …/casestatus/landing.do URL 302-redirects to this same SPA root). The first load lands on the Cloudflare interstitial.
```
browse open "https://egov.uscis.gov/" --remote
```
Wait for the challenge to clear. A --verified Browserbase session auto-solves the managed challenge in a few seconds. Poll until the page title flips from "Just a moment..." to "Case Status Online - Case Status Search":
```
browse wait timeout 5000 --remote
browse get title --remote     # repeat the wait once more if still "Just a moment..."
```
Enter the receipt number. Snapshot, find the textbox: Enter a Receipt Number (internal field name receipt_number), click it, then fill. Strip dashes; keep any * asterisks that appear on the paper notice. The "Check Status" button is disabled until the field is non-empty.
```
browse snapshot --remote                 # locate the textbox + "Check Status" button refs
browse click  "[<textbox-ref>]" --remote
browse fill   "[<textbox-ref>]" "EAC2290098765" --remote
```
Note: a11y refs are reassigned on every snapshot — re-snapshot right before each click/fill rather than reusing an old ref.

Submit. Click the now-enabled button: Check Status, then wait for the server action to return:

browse click "[<check-status-ref>]" --remote
browse wait load --remote
browse wait timeout 3000 --remote
browse snapshot --remote

Branch on the result (the URL stays https://egov.uscis.gov/ in every case — do not rely on a URL change to detect success):
- Status returned → the card shows a bold status headline (e.g. "Case Was Received", "Case Was Approved", "Request for Additional Evidence Was Sent", "Case Is Being Actively Reviewed by USCIS") followed by a descriptive paragraph. Extract both.
- Rejected → the card shows the red inline text "The receipt number entered is invalid, please try again." This single message covers both malformed receipts and well-formed-but-nonexistent ones. Emit it as the invalid_or_not_found outcome — it is a valid result, not a tooling failure.
Extract & emit (see Expected Output):
- status — the headline text.
- status_description — the full paragraph below it.
- form_type — parse from the paragraph (e.g. "Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization" → I-765); null if absent.
- service_center_code — first 3 characters of the receipt number (no page read needed).
- last_updated — only if the paragraph/page surfaces a date; frequently null on the current SPA.
- case_status_url — https://egov.uscis.gov/.

Release the session:

browse cloud sessions update "$sid" --status REQUEST_RELEASE

Site-Specific Gotchas

READ-ONLY. Never click "Login", "Create an account", or any "Visit Page" related-tools button. Stop at the status/result card.
Cloudflare, not hCaptcha. The gate is a Cloudflare managed challenge + Turnstile (verified via response headers Cf-Mitigated: challenge and challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/...). --verified --proxies clears it automatically; a bare or data-center-IP session does not. A plain browse cloud fetch/curl returns a 403 "Just a moment…" HTML page — confirmed, do not attempt an HTTP-only path.
No API / no deep-link. The legacy https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/mycasestatus.do?appReceiptNum=<R> GET endpoint is dead — it 302-redirects to the SPA root and does not prefill or look up the receipt. Submission is a Next.js server action (POST / with Next-Action headers + RSC encoding), not a callable JSON API. Don't waste time trying to reconstruct it; drive the form.
"The receipt number entered is invalid, please try again." is the catch-all rejection. It is returned for malformed receipts and for well-formed receipts that don't correspond to a real case. You cannot distinguish "bad format" from "no such case" from the message alone. Both example receipts in typical test prompts (EAC2290098765, MSC2190012345) and a structurally-plausible synthetic (EAC2305012345) all returned this same message during testing — only a genuine, existing receipt number produces a real status. Treat this as success: false, reason: "invalid_or_not_found".
The result URL never changes. Both the success card and the rejection render in-place at https://egov.uscis.gov/. Detect the outcome from the card text, never from a navigation/URL change.
Receipt formatting: 13 chars = 3-letter service-center prefix + 10 digits. Omit dashes. Keep * asterisks only if they are printed on the notice. Common prefixes: EAC/VSC (Vermont), WAC/CSC (California), LIN/NSC (Nebraska), SRC/TSC (Texas), MSC (National Benefits Center), YSC (Potomac), IOE (USCIS online-filing / ELIS).
"Check Status" button is disabled until the field has content — fill the textbox first, then read the button as enabled before clicking.
a11y refs are volatile. Refs from browse snapshot (e.g. [8-451]) are reassigned on every snapshot and after the Cloudflare clear. Re-snapshot immediately before each interaction; a stale ref yields Unknown ref errors.
Page is heavy Next.js + analytics (_next/static/chunks/*, Google Tag Manager, DAP analytics). Wait for load plus a short fixed timeout before reading the result card; the server-action response repaints the card a beat after navigation settles.

Expected Output

// Success — a real, existing receipt number
{
  "success": true,
  "receipt_number": "EAC2290098765",
  "service_center_code": "EAC",
  "status": "Case Was Received",
  "status_description": "On January 5, 2024, we received your Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, Receipt Number EAC2290098765, and sent you a receipt notice. We will mail you a decision or notice if we need something from you. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address.",
  "form_type": "I-765",
  "last_updated": null,
  "case_status_url": "https://egov.uscis.gov/",
  "error_reasoning": null
}

// Invalid or not found — the catch-all rejection (malformed OR nonexistent receipt)
{
  "success": false,
  "receipt_number": "EAC2290098765",
  "service_center_code": "EAC",
  "status": "The receipt number entered is invalid, please try again.",
  "status_description": null,
  "form_type": null,
  "last_updated": null,
  "case_status_url": "https://egov.uscis.gov/",
  "error_reasoning": "invalid_or_not_found — USCIS returned the catch-all rejection message. The receipt number is either malformed or does not correspond to an existing case; the tool does not distinguish the two."
}

// Blocked — Cloudflare challenge never cleared (no path through)
{
  "success": false,
  "receipt_number": "EAC2290098765",
  "service_center_code": "EAC",
  "status": null,
  "status_description": null,
  "form_type": null,
  "last_updated": null,
  "case_status_url": "https://egov.uscis.gov/",
  "error_reasoning": "blocked — Cloudflare managed challenge did not clear; page title stayed 'Just a moment...'. Retry with a fresh --verified --proxies session."
}