The VA Loan Number

VA loan numbers contain 12 digits with three hyphens to separate the 4 categories of the 12 digits. The first 2 digits of the VA loan number refers to the VA “Office of Jurisdiction” or “OJ” and indicates the number of the VA office which has (or had) jurisdiction over the subject property’s location. After the “OJ” digits, there is a hyphen followed by a second set of 2 digits. These digits refer to the VA “Office of Origin” or “OO”. Although VA has consolidated its loan guaranty operations from 46 Regional Offices to 9 Regional Loan Centers, the loan numbering system still reflects the former Regional Office alignment. Therefore, loans that would have previously been under the jurisdiction of our Waco Regional Office still retain the 49-49 prefix even though they are submitted to and serviced by the VA Regional Loan Center in Houston (which is 62-62). The VA loan number for a property in Dallas starts with “49-49-n-nnnnnnn” because the Waco Regional Office previously had loan guaranty jurisdiction over Northern Texas.

After the ‘OJ-OO’ digits, the number contains a hyphen followed by a single digit to indicate type of loan. The 6 that is currently used applies to most guaranteed loans made after January 1, 1990.

After the single digit for the loan type, VA loan numbers contain a hyphen and a 7-digit serial number assigned at the time of appraisal request. Lenders must use the leading zero if the number assigned contains only six positions.

VA uses automated systems to assign loan numbers, record funding fee payments, process guaranty requests, and service closed loans. Therefore, it is imperative that lenders carefully record the number when it is assigned and report it accurately on all correspondence with VA.