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USCIS to Resume Premium Processing for Applications in Phases

By May 29, 2020March 29th, 2021COVID-19
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USCIS has announced today that they will resume premium processing for Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers in phases over the next month. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the concern for safety, premium processing was initially suspended for all applications on March 20.

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. Please click here to learn more about premium processing.

Starting June 1, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all eligible Form I-140 applications, including EB-1EB-2 and EB-3.

Starting on June 8, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for:

  • H-1B petitions filed before June 8 that are currently pending and are cap exempt
  • All other Form I-129 petitions (non H-1B petitions) for nonimmigrant classifications eligible for premium processing filed before June 8 that are pending adjudication. This would include E-1E-2H-2BH-3L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S,P-3, P-3S, Q-1, R-1, TN-1 and TN-2.

Starting on June 15, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for:

  • H-1B petitions requesting premium processing by filing an I-907 concurrently with their I-129 (or request for a petition filed on or after June 8) and are exempt from the cap for the following two reasons:
    1. The employer is cap-exempt or because the beneficiary will be employed at a qualifying cap-exempt institution, entity or organization (such as an institution of higher education, a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization); or
    2. The beneficiary is cap-exempt based on a Conrad/IGA waiver under INA section 214(l).

Starting on June 22, USCIS will accept all other Form I-129 petition, including:

  • All H-1B cap-subject petitions (including those for fiscal year 2021), including change of status from F-1 nonimmigrant status, for both premium processing upgrades and concurrently filed I-907s.
  • All other Form I-129 petitions for nonimmigrant classifications eligible for premium processing and requesting premium processing by filing an I-907 concurrently with their I-129.

All dates are subject to change as USCIS continues to evaluate their workload.

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