What does my H1B EAC Case Number Mean?
You have probably made your way to this article if you are trying to understand what in the world the numbers and acronyms on your H1B EAC number mean. If you have filed your petition for the H1B visa lottery you will have had recieved a case number for your petition. When you first look at this number, it looks like a bunch of random digits and letters that have been sporadically put together. However, there is meaning to the way those numbers come together and we are here to explain it to you so that you can crack the code that never made sense to you.
You are not the only person scratching his or her head wondering what the sequence of those 13 digit mean. It is not just you who is lost, we promise. The reason this is a common question is because the USCIS doesn’t explain what the numbers mean in detail, unless you ask them. They do not brief you to understand what the number means so normally people are left in the dark trying to figure it out. Do not fret, because it will all make sense once you get through this article. We will give you the full explanation to help you decode the mysterious case of the H1B case number.
The H1B Case Number
The case number you get after filing a report, looks a little bit something like this: SRC-16–022–57890. So what do these numbers and letters mean? Here we have a simple explanation prepared for you. Take a look at the code you have and follow along so you cover everything. With the example above, we are going to pick this number apart so you understand what every part means.
SRC-15–222–47890
In this example, SRC indicates the location where the H1B petition is being processed. We will get more into each part below:
LOCATION: SRC
In our example, the letters are SRC, which is the abbreviation for Texas Service Center, indicates that you filed your H1B petition in the Texas Service Center. There are 4 different service centers where your H1B petition can be filed and their acronyms and location names include:
· LIN — Nebraska Service Center ; LIN refers to Lincoln, Nebraska
· EAC — Vermont Service Center ; EAC refers to Eastern Adjudication Center, which was the original name given to the center.
· SRC — Texas Service Center ; SRC refers to Southern Regional Center, which was the original name given to the center
· WAC — California Service Center ; WAC refers to Western Adjudication Center, which was the original name given to the center.
The only acronym which pairs up with what the actual abbreviation for the service center should look like is LIN — although, even in that case the abbreviation is a bit off. Don’t let this part of the code fool you and make the connection in your own EAC number to find out where your H1B is being processed.
YEAR: 16
The first two numbers you see after the location shortage, indicates the number of the year you filed your H1B petition. So in our example this number corresponds to the year of 2016. Please note that the number responds to the current year of the petition, it does not correspond to the fiscal year of the H1B petition by the USCIS. Although the petition was filed in 2016, the corresponding fiscal year would be for the FY17 quota. Keep that in mind as you check your numbers out.
DAY: 022
This next part of the code gets a little tricky. The next three-digit number represents the computer workday in the fiscal year on which the fee was taken. For example, if your fee was processed on the first day of the fiscal year (October 1st) the number in this section would be 001. This would follow suit for the days following the start of the fiscal year.
So let’s say your fee was processed on the 17th working day of the fiscal year, then the number in this section would be 017. This number can be quite confusing since the number refers to working days only and excludes weekends and federal holidays. For instance, in our example, our three-digit number is 022 ; since the fiscal year starts on October 1st, you would start counting 22 days from October 1, excluding weekends and federal holidays to get to the day your fee was processed. In this case, it would be the 22nd working day of October, not the 22nd of October.
If this does not make sense, you can look up an online counting system where you simply type in your number and the system spits out the correct date for you,
CASE NUMBER: 57890
The last 5 digits are the random numbers that should have no meaning! One thing that is interesting to know about these 5 digits is that they always start with the digit 5.
Word of Caution — EAC or WAC does not mean H1B
Pay special attention if your case number starts with the letters EAC or WAC. If you have a case number that begins with these letters it DOES NOT automatically mean that the petition you filed for is an H1B visa petition. The USCIS gives out the letters of EAC or WAC to other petitions as well as the H1B visa petition. Therefore, EAC or WAC can also be used for visa types such as H2A, H3, L1, O1, P1, P1S, and so on and so forth. We just want to remind you that having the letters EAC or WAC doesn’t automatically mean the petition was filed for an H1B visa.
We hope this article helped you crack the code of your H1B visa case number. If you have any further questions or don’t fully understand what your number means, feel free to contact us. if you have any experiences to share regarding the topic, feel free to share them with us. Other than that, we wish you the best of luck in your H1B visa processing and we hope everything works out in your favor this H1B season!
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