Applicant Information Worksheet (AIW) at Your Biometrics Appointment: Every Field Explained

USCIS hands you a short worksheet at the ASC and expects you to fill it in on the spot. Here is every field it asks for — height, weight, eye color, A-number — and how to answer without guessing.

You are at the check-in window at an Application Support Center, you have your appointment notice and your passport, and somebody just handed you a clipboard. The sheet on it asks for your height. Your weight. Your eye color. An A-number you are not sure you have.

Nobody warned you about this. Every guide you read — possibly the full ASC walkthrough on this site — told you the ASC does not review documents and that you need only the notice and an ID. That is still true. The clipboard is not a document review.

The worksheet is a data-entry aid, not an adjudication. Its only job is to let the biometrics operator key your biographic details into the system alongside your fingerprints, photograph and signature without typing while you stand there. Nothing on it is decided by an officer. Nothing on it amends what you filed. An imprecise height does not create a discrepancy in your record.

What follows is every field it asks for, which ones actually matter, and the five minutes of preparation that make the whole thing trivial. This is a common experience for I-539 filers extending or changing status, H-4 EAD applicants, and employment-based I-485 filers — the three groups who receive biometrics notices most often.

Why there is no official copy of this worksheet anywhere

Start with the honest part, because it explains why your search results looked strange.

USCIS numbers its forms. I-765, I-539, I-485, G-1145 — each has a number, an edition date, a download page and published instructions. The Applicant Information Worksheet has none of those. It does not appear in the USCIS forms catalog. It is not "Form AIW," because it is not part of the numbered series at all.

USCIS's own guidance on preparing for your biometric services appointment describes what to bring, what happens at the machines, the attestation you will sign and how to reschedule. It does not mention a worksheet. That is not an oversight — it is the reason no download exists.

Three consequences follow, and they are the reason this page is written the way it is:

1. Every downloadable "AIW" you find online is a third-party reproduction of unknown vintage, from a template site that makes money on the download. It may match what you are handed. It may be years stale.
2. The layout varies by Application Support Center. So does the wording and the order of the fields.
3. Not every ASC uses paper at all. Some collect the same information by interview at the station while the operator types.

You cannot pre-fill this worksheet. You can only pre-decide your answers. There is no authoritative blank to print, and any site selling you one is selling you a guess. What you can do is know your height in feet and inches, your weight in pounds, and where your A-number and receipt number are printed — before you are standing at a window with a pen.

What USCIS actually collects at the ASC

The worksheet is not free-floating. It exists to feed a specific, documented collection.

At the appointment, USCIS collects your fingerprints, photograph and signature. The agency's authority to require and collect biometrics sits at 8 CFR 103.2(b)(9), which USCIS cites directly on its biometrics guidance page. For certain forms you also provide a digital signature that, in USCIS's own words, reaffirms that your application "and all documents filed with and in support of" it "were complete, true, and correct at the time of filing." At the machine, that attestation is titled the Acknowledgement of Appointment at USCIS Application Support Center, and it is displayed in English and Spanish.

The biographic descriptors on the clipboard ride along with that capture. According to the DHS Privacy Impact Assessment for the Customer Profile Management System — the person-centric repository for biometric and associated biographic data USCIS captures — the information sent onward for background checks includes name, A-Number or Social Security number, date of birth, country of birth, race, ethnicity, gender, address, and physical characteristics: weight, height, eye color and hair color.

That is the field set. It is a description of a person, not an argument about a case. Which is exactly why the pressure you are feeling is misplaced.

Every field, and how to answer it

The table below is organized by what the ASC collects, per the DHS documentation above. The wording on the sheet in front of you may differ; the categories will not.

Identity fields: name, date of birth, country of birth

These are the three that matter, and the rule for all of them is the same: copy from the paper in your hand, not from memory.

Use the name spelling and name order USCIS has on file. If your surname comes first in your own convention but USCIS recorded it last, write it the way USCIS recorded it. If you have one name only, that is not a problem here — but write it consistently with the filing.

One real caution. If the name USCIS has differs materially from the name on your photo ID — a transliteration difference, a missing surname, a post-marriage change — that is not a worksheet problem. It is a documentation question that can affect your case, and it is worth bringing supporting documents to the appointment. USCIS is explicit that it "cannot change your name or other personal information during your ASC appointment." Sort out a real mismatch with your DSO or an immigration attorney before the date, not at the window.

A-number and Social Security number

This is the field people freeze on, so be clear about what it is.

An A-number (Alien Registration Number) is a unique seven-, eight- or nine-digit identifier that DHS assigns. USCIS's own glossary defines it that way, and Form I-9 instructions describe the same field as 7 to 9 digits. It appears on correspondence DHS or USCIS has sent you — including your Form I-797C — and on a Form I-766 EAD in the USCIS # field, which is the A-number without the "A" prefix.

A receipt number is a different thing entirely: 13 characters, three letters followed by ten digits. The three-letter prefix tells you where the case sits — EAC (Vermont), SRC (Texas), LIN (Nebraska), WAC (California), and the newer IOE prefix for cases in the electronic system. That number is what locates your case, and it is printed on your I-797C.

If you have never been assigned an A-number, leave the box blank and say so at the window. Plenty of nonimmigrant applicants have no A-number. Inventing nine digits to avoid an empty box is the single worst thing you could do on this sheet.

Mailing address

Write the address where USCIS mail actually reaches you. Filling this box is not a change of address and does not satisfy your reporting obligation.

If you have moved, handle it properly and separately. USCIS strongly encourages you to file the change through the self-service change-of-address tool in your USCIS online account, which updates its systems almost immediately; a paper Form AR-11 by mail also meets the legal requirement but does not update USCIS systems automatically. Note two things: most people in the US must report a move to USCIS within 10 days, and changing your address with the Postal Service does not change it with USCIS — USPS will not forward USCIS mail.

Height and weight

The federal convention for these descriptors, per the FBI's guidelines for fingerprint submissions, is height in feet and inches with fractions of an inch rounded to the nearest inch, and weight in pounds with fractions rounded to the nearest pound. If you have only ever known your measurements in metric, work them out before you arrive:

• 165 cm ≈ 5 ft 5 in · 170 cm ≈ 5 ft 7 in · 175 cm ≈ 5 ft 9 in · 180 cm ≈ 5 ft 11 in
• 60 kg ≈ 132 lb · 70 kg ≈ 154 lb · 80 kg ≈ 176 lb · 90 kg ≈ 198 lb

Approximate is acceptable. Nobody is going to weigh you, and a two-pound difference from your last physical is not a discrepancy.

Eye color and hair color

These are typically circled from a fixed list rather than written in. The federal descriptor tables the FBI publishes for fingerprint submissions give the underlying option sets:

• Eye color: black, blue, brown, gray, green, hazel, maroon.
• Hair color: bald, black, blonde (or strawberry), blue, brown, green, gray (or partially gray), orange, purple, pink, red (or auburn), sandy, white, unknown.

Worth flagging, because it circulates widely and wrongly: lists of "AIW eye color options" floating around online often include pink, multicolored and unknown. Those are hair codes, not eye codes, in the federal tables. The printed list on the sheet you are handed is what governs. Pick the closest match, and if the sheet offers an "unknown" option and you genuinely do not know, use it.

Race and ethnicity

Brief, because it deserves to be. These are circled from a fixed set. The federal descriptor table used for fingerprint submissions has five categories — Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, American Indian or Alaskan Native, White, and Unknown — and the presence of "Unknown" is the practical answer for anyone unsure.

USCIS adds one clarification worth knowing: ASC staff "may need to limit the information to a single race or ethnic category due to system limitations," but "the race and ethnicity you selected on your application, petition, or request will remain a part of your permanent record." So if the operator narrows what you circled, that is a system constraint, not a change to your filing.

If you are unsure which box applies to you, ask at the window. Nothing in your case turns on this field.

The five minutes of prep that make this trivial

This is the whole practical value of the page. Before you leave for the appointment:

1. Know your height in feet and inches and your weight in pounds. Do the conversion at home.
2. Have your original I-797C in hand, with the receipt number and — if one is printed — the A-number visible.
3. Bring your own pen. Do not assume there is one at the window.
4. Know the name spelling and order as filed, and the country of birth as it appears on your passport.
5. Arrive a few minutes early. Many centers let you complete the sheet while you wait, which turns a rushed five minutes into an unrushed five minutes.

That is it. There is no studying to do.

What the worksheet is not

Correcting the wrong kind of preparation is as useful as describing the right kind.

• It is not an interview. ASC staff collect biometrics; they are not adjudicators and they do not review your case documents.
• It does not amend your petition. Whatever you filed is what stands.
• It is not reviewed by an officer. No adjudicator reads the clipboard.
• It does not affect your processing time. Filling it in perfectly does not speed anything up.
• No fee is collected at the ASC. Filing fees are paid with the filing. If you want the full picture of what USCIS actually charges across the process, that is a separate question — but nobody at the ASC will ask you for money.

There is one thing at the appointment that carries real legal weight, and it is not the worksheet. It is the digital signature. You will be attesting, under penalty of perjury, that your filing and everything submitted in support of it were complete, true and correct at the time of filing. If, standing there, you realize something you filed was inaccurate, do not sign your way past it and do not try to fix it on the clipboard. Stop and speak to the attorney who prepared the filing.

What else to have with you

Beyond the worksheet, USCIS's requirements are short and specific:

• Your original ASC appointment notice (Form I-797C) — and if you received more than one biometrics notice, bring all of them.
• Valid photo identification — a passport, driver's license or Green Card.
• Nothing else from your case file. Do not bring the petition or supporting evidence; nobody at the ASC will look at it.
• No weapons. Federal law prohibits firearms, knives, pepper spray and ammunition at any USCIS facility, permit or not. Check your bag before you leave.

Your attorney or accredited representative does not need to attend with you. If you need language help, USCIS publishes translations of the ASC attestation in several languages and permits you to bring someone who can translate for you.

For the full check-in-to-exit sequence, see the ASC walkthrough. If your appointment date does not work, rescheduling now runs through your USCIS online account — USCIS says explicitly "do not mail your request," the request must be made before the appointment date and time and at least 12 hours ahead, and it must establish good cause. If you filed on paper, you may need an Online Access Code to link the case to an account first. And if you are weighing international travel around the appointment, read travel while an application is pending before booking anything.

If something on the worksheet is wrong after you leave

You get home, replay the appointment, and realize you wrote something wrong. Here is the honest answer.

The worksheet is not the record of authority. Your filed forms are. If you rounded your weight the wrong way or picked the wrong shade of brown for your eyes, there is nothing to fix and no one to tell.

If you wrote a wrong name or a wrong A-number, the fix is at the case level, not the worksheet level. Log into your USCIS online account and check what USCIS has for your case. If the error also sits on a document you filed, follow the correction path for that document — the mechanics are the same idea as correcting an error on your I-94: go to the record that governs, not the paper that fed it.

Do not mail anything to the Application Support Center. It is not a records office.

And if the discrepancy is real — the name USCIS has is not your legal name, or an A-number you have been using turns out to belong to a different record — that is a case-specific question. Take it to an immigration attorney, or to your DSO first if you are on F-1 or F-2. This article is informational and is not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Applicant Information Worksheet at a USCIS biometrics appointment?

It is a short worksheet that many Application Support Centers hand to applicants at check-in so the biometrics operator can key your biographic details into the system alongside your fingerprints, photograph and signature. It is not a numbered USCIS form, it is not published on uscis.gov, it does not go into your case file as evidence, and it is not adjudicated. It exists so that the operator is not typing your height, weight and eye color while you stand at the window.

Is the Applicant Information Worksheet an official USCIS form I can download in advance?

No. USCIS assigns numbers to its official forms — I-765, I-539, I-485 — and publishes them at uscis.gov/forms. The ASC worksheet has no form number and does not appear in the USCIS forms catalog, which is why the search results for it are template-selling sites rather than a government page. The layout and the exact fields can vary between Application Support Centers, and some centers skip the paper entirely and collect the same data by interview at the station. Prepare your answers, not a printout.

What information does the worksheet ask for?

Biographic identifiers, not case facts. The DHS Privacy Impact Assessment for the Customer Profile Management System — the repository for what the ASC captures — lists the data collected alongside your fingerprints, photograph and signature as name, A-Number or Social Security number, date of birth, country of birth, race, ethnicity, gender, address, and physical characteristics including weight, height, eye color and hair color. Prepare those. USCIS does not publish the worksheet itself, so the printed wording and order vary by location.

What if I do not know my A-number?

Your A-number, when USCIS has assigned you one, appears on correspondence USCIS has already sent you, including your Form I-797C notices, and on a Form I-766 EAD in the USCIS # field — the same digits without the A prefix. Copy it from the notice you are already required to bring rather than from memory. If you have never been assigned one, leave it blank and tell the operator. Many nonimmigrant applicants do not have an A-number, and the receipt number on your I-797C is what actually locates your case.

Does it matter if I guess my height and weight?

An approximate answer is fine and nobody will measure you. The federal standard for these descriptors is height in feet and inches with fractions rounded to the nearest inch, and weight in pounds rounded to the nearest pound — a rounding rule, not a precision test. What genuinely matters is that your name, date of birth and A-number or receipt number match your appointment notice, because those are the fields that tie the biometrics you are about to give to the right case.

Do I have to answer the race and ethnicity questions?

These are collected as biographic descriptors and the federal descriptor set includes an "unknown" option. USCIS states that ASC staff may need to limit your race or ethnicity to a single category because of system limitations, and that the race and ethnicity you selected on your application itself remains part of your permanent record regardless. If you are unsure which box applies, say so at the window rather than guessing at random. Nothing about your case turns on this field.

Is there anything else I should bring beyond the appointment notice and ID?

For the worksheet itself, the useful additions are your own pen and your I-797C, where your receipt number and, where assigned, your A-number are printed. USCIS requires your original ASC appointment notice, all notices if you received more than one, and valid photo identification. Do not bring your petition, supporting evidence or weapons — federal law prohibits firearms, knives, pepper spray and ammunition at any USCIS facility.

A clipboard at the check-in window is the least consequential piece of paper in your entire case — but only if you know that going in. F1Jobs works with international students and workers through the procedural stretches of the process, from the ASC appointment to the offer that needs sponsoring.