diff --git a/tensorlayer/layers/recurrent.py b/tensorlayer/layers/recurrent.py
index 2d3558af4..565d27e4c 100644
--- a/tensorlayer/layers/recurrent.py
+++ b/tensorlayer/layers/recurrent.py
@@ -247,7 +247,9 @@ def forward(self, inputs, sequence_length=None, initial_state=None, **kwargs):
                         "but got an actual length of a sequence %d" % i
                     )
 
-            sequence_length = [i - 1 if i >= 1 else 0 for i in sequence_length]
+        sequence_length = tl.layers.retrieve_seq_length_op3(inputs)
+
+        sequence_length = [i - 1 if i >= 1 else 0 for i in sequence_length]
 
         # set warning
         # if (not self.return_last_output) and sequence_length is not None: