Business Immigration Insights

UPDATE – Phase 3 of Stage 1 will begin on August 1, 2022 and include pending I-140 petitions in the EB-1C Multinational Executive/Manager category that were filed with USCIS on or before July 1, 2021 and pending I-140 petitions in the EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) category that were filed with USCIS on or before August 1, 2021. 

----------------------------------------

Stage 1 of USCIS’s previously announced Premium Processing Expansion program is set to begin on June 1, 2022. Stage 1 will focus on I-140 petitions and will be rolled out in phases, with only long-pending cases eligible to upgrade to premium processing in the coming months. 

A new rule, “Implementation of the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act,” published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2022, will open the popular USCIS “premium processing” service to new categories of immigration filings that are currently subject to extraordinarily long backlogs.  USCIS will roll out the expansions in stages.

In a move reflective of the agency’s current approach to rulemaking and policy changes, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has provided less than one business day’s notice that it is almost doubling the popular “premium processing” fee that allows US employers to receive decisions on their petitions to sponsor foreign workers in a matter of days, instead of waiting the many months these petitions currently take to be processed at USCIS without the premium fee.

After suspending all “premium processing” for more than two months during the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS today announced it will again accept premium fees (currently, $1,440 per form) and requests for expedited adjudication (currently, 15 calendar days) for Forms I-129 (Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker) and I‑140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker).

After weeks of anxious speculation by immigration attorneys and their clients, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) finally announced their premium processing strategy for this year’s H-1B cap season, and it’s … complicated:

• H-1B cap petitions requesting a change of status may request premium processing when the case is initially filed during the first week of April;
• The 15 day premium processing clock for change of status cases will not start until USCIS notifies the public sometime before May 20, 2019;
• If premium processing is not requested with an initial ...

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the suspension of premium processing for FY2019 H‑1B cap cases, announced on March 21, 2018, has been extended until possibly February 2019.

USCIS also announced that effective September 11, 2018, premium processing will be suspended for H‑1B cases filed at the Vermont and California Service Centers, except for:

1. H-1B petitions filed by cap-exempt petitioners or by petitioners who will be employing beneficiaries at qualifying cap-exempt institutions, entities, or organizations; or

The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has just announced that it will temporarily suspend premium processing service for H-1B Cap petitions for Fiscal Year 2019.  The suspension is expected to remain in effect until September 10, 2018.  Once the suspension is lifted, pending H-1B Cap petitions can be upgraded to premium processing service, if desired.  Other H-1B petition types, including petitions to amend or extend H-1B status, or to change employers, are not impacted at this time.  The official announcement can be seen here. We will continue to monitor these ...

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that premium processing has been reinstated for all H-1B cases.   As of today, petitioners may file H-1B petitions requesting premium processing and may upgrade currently pending H-1B petitions to premium processing.

Although no official statement has been issued, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced during a call with the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Service Center Operations Liaison Committee that it expects to resume premium processing for all H-1B cases on or before October 3, 2017.   We will update this post as soon as USCIS makes an official announcement.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced today the reinstatement of premium processing for H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year 2018 cap.  USCIS previously reinstated premium processing for H-1B petitions filed on behalf of Conrad 30 waivers recipients and those filed by certain H-1B cap-exempt petitioners.

 USCIS expects to resume premium processing as workload permits, but previously announced a target date of October 3, 2017.

Today, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the reinstatement of premium processing service for H-1B petitions filed by certain cap-exempt petitioners.  In addition to petitioners who seek to employ physicians who are recipients of Conrad 30 waivers, H-1B petitioners who meet the following criteria may now also request premium processing:

• Institutions of higher education;
• Nonprofits related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education; or
• Nonprofit research or governmental research organizations.

USCIS also ...

The USCIS announced on June 23, 2017, that it will reintroduce Premium Processing for H-1B petitions.  USCIS suspended this program for all H-1B petitions on April 3, 2017.  The reintroduction will be done incrementally, beginning today with H-1Bs filed under the Conrad 30 Waiver program for medical doctors working in underserved areas.   As the USCIS evaluates its workload, it will notify stakeholders when other H-1B petitions can be filed under (or, if already pending, upgraded to) Premium Processing.  Donald Neufeld, Associate Director, Service Center Operations, advised the ...

Due to the upcoming temporary suspension of premium processing for all H-1B petitions on April 3, 2017, USCIS has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of premium processing cases it has received.  The Nebraska Service Center, which processes all H-1B extension petitions for non-cap exempt employers containing no changes to the beneficiary’s terms of employment, has announced that it will focus its resources on processing H-1B petitions in accordance with premium processing requirements.