The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today that it will resume premium processing for most H-1B petitions on Tuesday, February 19. The USCIS will only accept a premium processing request for cases filed on or before December 21, 2018. Premium processing is a service in which the USCIS promises to provide a response to a petition in 15-calendar days for an additional government fee of $1,410.
Notes:
- All petitions filed on or after December 22, 2018 will still be ineligible for premium processing until further notice.
- Recently USCIS appears to have decreased its processing time and has issued H-1B approvals for Change of Employer and Extension petitions much faster than in 2018. Soon, cases filed in early December and earlier may not require premium-processing requests.
- USCIS provides instructions to employers who have received a notice informing them that their petition has been transferred from one USCIS service center to a different service center. You should submit the premium processing request on form I-907, along with a copy of the transfer notice, to the service center now adjudicating the petition. If you send your request to the incorrect service center, USCIS will forward it to the new service center, but the 15-day clock for premium processing will not start until the new service center receives the request.
- Employers who received a Request for Evidence (RFE) should send the RFE response at the same time as the request for premium processing.