To date, nearly one hundred thirty million $1,400 coronavirus relief checks have already been sent out to bank accounts or mailboxes of financially struggling Americans.

However, there are still millions of cash-strapped Americans who are sitting empty-handed, wondering daily if they will ever get their hands on the potentially lifesaving stimulus funds.

Keep in mind that for this particular batch of Economic Impact Payments under President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, what’s noticeably different is that it includes a large number of paper checks and prepaid debit cards.

“The IRS continues to send the third round of stimulus payments in record time,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. “Since this new set of payments will include more mailed payments, we urge people to carefully watch their mail for a check or debit card in the coming weeks.”  

In its recent update, the IRS has acknowledged that most non-filers weren’t included in the current batch, as it focused on sending out payments to those who filed a tax return in 2019 or 2020. It also included individuals who didn’t file a return but were able to register with the IRS non-filers tool.

The agency also noted that it will take potentially take weeks for nearly fifteen million paper checks totaling $34 billion and five million EIP cards, a prepaid debit card that one must activate online before using, totaling $11 billion to reach Americans’ mailboxes via traditional mail.

Also, be aware that if you get a confirmation letter (Notice 1444 or Notice 1444-B) from the IRS stating that your payment was issued but you didn’t receive it, you can request an IRS payment trace. You can learn more about how to successfully do that here.

Take note that for the first two stimulus checks, there were reports of some people who mistook their mailed payments for junk mail and threw them out with the trash. And to help prepare Americans waiting for that physical check, the IRS has released new images of what they should be on the lookout for in the mail this time—and it will prominently show the seal of the U.S. Treasury on the envelope. Moreover, the paper checks will not bear Biden’s signature, though previous payments had former President Donald Trump’s name on it.

Meanwhile, some people should be on the lookout for a prepaid debit card. Know that debit cards that were used for previous payments will not be automatically reloaded, so if you’re eligible, a new one will be issued. The debit cards will have the Visa name on the front and MetaBank N.A., which issues the cards, on the back.

The Treasury has stated that if a taxpayer received the last two stimulus checks in the mail, he or she could get the payment as a direct deposit this time around.

“The vast majority of taxpayers receiving EIPs will receive it by direct deposit. In addition, the IRS and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service leveraged data in their systems to convert many payments to direct deposits that otherwise would have been sent as paper checks or debit cards,” the agency said. “This accelerated the disbursement of these payments by weeks.”

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.