How to Check H1B Visa Processing Times on the USCIS Homepage

You have filed your H1B petition in April, received your H1B case number, and now you are waiting for your visa to be approved. I am sure you wonder about when you will get your visa and how long the processing time will take. Don’t worry, you are not the only one wanting to know this answer.

Others who have applied for the same visa also wonder how much processing time it will take to get their H1B visa. In order to make things easier for you, we have prepared a guide on how to check processing times online on the USCIS homepage.

But before we get into that, we want to explain to you what your case number is.

USCIS Case Number, Explained

First, how do you identify your processing center?

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? We dissect each part of the number down.

LOCATION:

In our example, the letters are SRC, which is the abbreviation for Texas Service Center. This 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.

Now that you know what your location name is, you can start to check the processing time online.

Must Read! Want to know more about the H1B Visa? Don’t miss the latest H1B news.

5 Steps to Checking H1B Visa Processing Times

1. Homepage

Go to the USCIS homepage: https://www.uscis.gov/

2. Tools

 Click on “Tools” and then on “See Office Case Processing Times.”

3. Select Service Center

The next step is to select your processing center and then to click on Service Center Processing Dates.

4. Processing time

Once you have clicked on service center processing dates, it will open up the processing times for the specific center, as you can see here:

The problem is that these processing times are not always accurate, as this information is not updated daily.

5. Average Processing Times:

Here under this link: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/ptAllFormsAverage.do, you can check the average processing times for all USCIS offices. This might be more helpful than the other chart.

Here you can see the fiscal year and the processing time needed.

Read More

• 6 Ways to Find an H1B Visa Sponsorship
• How to Change Jobs on an H1B Visa
• The Non-ECR Category: A Guide
• H1B Visa Stamping: H1B Visa Interview Documents and More
• Complete Guide to the H1B to Green Card Process
• What Are My Options for Change of Status Visa Stamping If I Am Already in America?
• Guide to the H2B Visa
• H1B Transfer: How To Change Jobs on an H1B Visa

Conclusion

We wish you the best of luck for your H1B visa journey and we hope you get your H1B visa answer soon. If you have any further questions about the processing time or this online tool, please do not hesitate to contact us. Also please share your experiences below! We are all here to help each other out and learn from each other.

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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