Your US visa number is the eight-character code printed in red ink in the lower-right corner of the visa foil glued into your passport. Every other number on the foil is printed in black. If it’s red, it’s the visa number; if it’s black, it’s something else.
What the Number Looks Like
The visa number is the only element on the foil printed in red ink. Your name, nationality, visa classification, and issuing post all sit in black around it. The red digits also carry a slightly raised texture from intaglio printing, which you can feel with a fingertip. That texture is an anti-counterfeiting feature, not a defect.
The standard format is eight numeric characters. Some older foils use one letter followed by seven digits, but the total length is still eight characters. Anything noticeably longer or shorter is a different field.
Where It Sits on the Foil
Find your photograph on the left side of the foil, then look to the far right. The visa number is in the lower-right area, usually just below or beside the expiration date. Those two pieces of information, the number and the date your visa stops being usable for entry, are clustered in the same corner.
The visa classification (B1/B2, F-1, H-1B, and so on), the issuing post, and your biographical details sit above and to the left. The consular officer’s signature or stamp is to the left as well. The red number has its own clear space against the security background, which makes it easy to isolate once you know the corner to look in.
The State Department has issued newer foil designs in recent years, including the “Lincoln” design and a newer “Bridge” design that started appearing at various embassies and consulates in 2023 and 2024.1U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Japan. Visa Update – New Bridge Visa On both, the visa number stays in the lower-right area and stays red. If your foil looks a little different from pictures you’ve seen, the number is still where it has always been.
Numbers That Are Not Your Visa Number
The foil holds several numeric fields, and mixing them up is the single most common mistake on immigration paperwork. The ones to ignore:
- Passport number. Printed in black, longer than the visa number, and repeated from your passport’s data page onto the foil.
- Control number. A separate internal tracking number printed in black elsewhere on the foil. It serves an administrative purpose inside State Department systems and is not what forms mean when they ask for your visa number.
- CEAC barcode number. The barcode on the foil encodes a case number tied to the Consular Electronic Application Center. For nonimmigrant visas it starts with “AA” followed by eight digits, and it appears on your DS-160 confirmation page. It is not your visa number.
- Alien Registration Number (A-number). Seven to nine digits assigned by USCIS to track your overall immigration history. It stays with you across applications; the visa number is unique to one foil.
Same shortcut, said again because it saves people the most trouble: red is the visa number, black is not.
If You Have a Border Crossing Card Instead
A Border Crossing Card (Form DSP-150) is not a standard visa foil. It’s a laminated, credit-card-sized document that doubles as a B1/B2 visitor visa and a border crossing permit, issued only to Mexican citizens who reside in Mexico.2U.S. Department of State. Border Crossing Card
The front of the card carries biographical information but no visible visa number. Flip it over. On the back is a machine-readable zone: several rows of letters, numbers, and filler characters. The visa number is embedded inside that zone.3U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Rail APIS Document Guidance The characters aren’t labeled the way the red number on a standard foil is, so pulling it out takes some care. The grouping that follows the country code and your date of birth is where to focus.
If You Can’t Find the Visa or the Number
A lost or stolen US visa cannot be replaced inside the United States. You have to apply for a new visa in person at a US embassy or consulate abroad and provide a written account of how the document was lost, plus a copy of a police report if one exists.4U.S. Department of State. Lost and Stolen Passports, Visas, and Arrival/Departure Records
One thing to know before you report: once a visa is entered into the system as lost or stolen, it is permanently invalid, even if you later find it in a coat pocket. You’ll still need a replacement.4U.S. Department of State. Lost and Stolen Passports, Visas, and Arrival/Departure Records Search thoroughly first.
If you only need the number of a past visa for a form, you can request your visa records from the State Department through a Freedom of Information Act request. The department accepts FOIA requests through its Public Access Link portal at foia.state.gov or by email at FOIARequest@state.gov. You’ll need your full name, date of birth, place of birth, the visa type, and the embassy or consulate that issued it. Submitting a request means you agree to pay applicable fees up to $25 unless you specify a different limit.5U.S. Department of State. FOIA Request Portal Visa records belong to the State Department, not USCIS, so a request sent to USCIS will be redirected.6USCIS. Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act