USCIS has announced that it will resume premium processing on January 28, 2019 for all pending FY 2019 H-1B cap petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption (the “master’s cap”). Premium processing was suspended in September last year to give USCIS a chance to catch up on the backlog of applications. Premium processing costs $1410 and guarantees that USCIS will take adjudicative action on the application within 15 days. If USCIS fails to do so, the agency will return the fee but still expedite the application. Premium processing also guarantees that any RFE or NOID responses will also be adjudicated within 15 days.
For all applications that are currently pending, petitioners can file a Form I-907 Request for Premium Processing Service with the fee payment attached to receive faster response for their applications. This service is not currently available to new applications, USCIS will review their workload and resume the service for all other categories of H-1B petitions when workload permits. To learn more about the H-1B visa and its requirements, please click here.
