Still waiting for a California stimulus check? Here's when to expect yours

If you haven't gotten your Golden State Stimulus check, you may want to check your mailbox periodically over the next few weeks.

Hundreds of thousands of Californians will get their $600 to $1,100 paper checks in the mailbox between now and January.

If the last three digits of your ZIP code are below 044, the checks should have already been mailed to you, according to the Franchise Tax Board.

For others, here's when the state plans to mail the checks, set by the last three digits of your ZIP code. It may take up to three weeks for them to arrive in your mailbox. The board noted some payments may need extra time to process for accuracy and completeness:

— 045-220: Checks mailed Oct. 18 through Nov. 5 and to arrive by Nov. 26.

— 221-375: Checks mailed Nov. 1 through Nov. 19 and to arrive by Dec. 10.

— 376-584: Checks mailed Nov. 15 through Dec. 3 and to arrive by Dec. 24.

— 585-719: Checks mailed Nov. 29 through Dec. 17 and to arrive by Jan. 7.

— 720-927: Checks mailed Dec. 13 through Dec. 31 and to arrive by Jan. 21.

— 928-999: Checks mailed Dec. 27 through Jan. 11 and to arrive by Feb. 1.

Some 3.7 million direct deposits have already been sent to people's bank account, the board's spokesman, Andrew LePage, said in an e-mail. If you haven't received payments by direct deposits by now, you will likely receive a mailed check, he said.

Altogether, 6.5 million payments have already been issued for a total of about $4.7 billion, LePage said. The board has said it estimates about 9 million Californians are eligible for the checks.

To be eligible for the payments, Californians must have filed their 2020 tax returns by Oct. 15. If your tax return is processed during or after the time specified above, you could wait up to 60 days afterwards to get the stimulus money, the board said on its website.

Only those who made less than $75,000 in 2020 are eligible. You must have been a California resident for more than half of 2020, and you must be a California resident by the time the payments are issued.

Those who don't have dependents will get $600, while those who do will get $1,100.

Those who got $600 checks back around May through the first round of the Golden State Stimulus are eligible to receive a $500 or $1,000 check this time as long as they have one or more dependent. You can check your eligibility at the board's calculator on its website.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans for the stimulus payments in May as the state accumulated a record $76 billion budget surplus driven by income tax collected from the state's wealthiest residents. The state was required to give some of its surplus back to its taxpayers to comply with a government spending cap California voters approved by ballot initiative in 1979.

The Golden State Stimulus program is expected to cost $12 billion in total for the state.