Tag: Premium Processing

United States | Registration Selection Complete for FY2025 H-1B Second Lottery

Today, USCIS announced it has reached a sufficient number of registrations for the second H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2025 and has notified all prospective H-1B petitioners with selected registrations that they are eligible to file.

Key Points:

  • Only petitioners with selected registrations may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2025, and only for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration notice.
  • A second selection for the master’s cap was not conducted because enough master’s cap registrations had already been selected and sufficient petitions were received.
  • Registration selection only pertains to eligibility to file an H-1B cap-subject petition. Petitioners filing H-1B cap-subject petitions must still establish eligibility for petition approval based on existing statutory and regulatory requirements.

Additional Information: An H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov and within the filing period indicated on the relevant selection notice. The period for filing the H-1B cap-subject petition will be at least 90 days. Petitioners must include a copy of the applicable selection notice with the FY 2025 H-1B cap-subject petition.

USCIS published a final rule that increased fees required for most immigration applications and petitions on Jan. 31, 2024. The new fees are effective as of April 1, 2024, and petitions with incorrect fees will be rejected. Also, as of April 1, 2024, only the new edition of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, will be accepted.

The increased filing fee for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, is effective as of Feb. 26, 2024. I-907 forms postmarked on or after Feb. 26, 2024, with the incorrect fee will be rejected and fees returned.

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For more news on the second H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2025, visit the NLR Immigration section.

USCIS to Implement Premium Processing for Certain Previously Filed Form I-140 Petitions

On May 24, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would begin implementing premium processing for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140 under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications.

As explained in our previous alert, USCIS had announced that it will expand its premium processing service to include additional immigration benefit case types, pursuant to a final rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The rule is intended to implement the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act passed by Congress and is part of USCIS’s efforts to reduce existing backlogs and provide needed relief to Employment Authorization Document (EAD) cardholders.

While the rule will become effective on May 31, 2022, it will be implemented in a phased approach over a three-year period. USCIS has now begun implementing these changes to premium processing, starting with certain Form I-140 classifications: EB-1C (classification as a multinational executive or manager) and EB-2 (classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver (NIW)).

This expansion will occur in the following phases:

  • Beginning June 1, 2022, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for EB-1C multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before January 1, 2021.
  • Beginning July 1, 2022, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for EB-2 NIW petitions received on or before June 1, 2021, and EB-1C multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before March 1, 2021.

USCIS will only accept premium processing requests for currently pending cases based on their date of filing, as noted above. USCIS is not accepting new Form I-140 petitions in these categories with a premium processing request at this time. We anticipate that USCIS will expand premium processing requests for more recently filed EB-1 and EB-2 petitions in the future.

Article By Shannon N. Parker of Mintz

For more immigration legal news, click here to visit the National Law Review.

©1994-2022 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. All Rights Reserved.

USCIS Temporarily Suspends Premium Processing for H-1B Petition

USCIS H1-B visa premium processingOn March 3, 2017, USCIS announced a temporary suspension of premium processing impacting all H-1B petitions received by USCIS beginning April 3, 2017.  The suspension will be in place for up to six months, supposedly to permit the agency to prioritize pending H-1B cases that are outside of their normal processing time and to reduce the backlog of pending H-1B cases filed in 2016.

The following case types will be impacted:

  • All H-1B petitions filed under the fiscal year 2018 H-1B cap;

  • All H-1B cap-exempt petitions; and

  • All non-cap H-1B extensions, all change of employer H-1B petitions, and all amended H-1B petitions.

The USCIS premium processing suspension does not impact a petitioner or beneficiary’s ability to request “expedited handling” of any kind of H-1B petition.  Such requests will be granted on a case-by-case discretionary basis, if the petitioner and/or beneficiary can establish severe financial loss to company or person, an emergency situation, a humanitarian situation, or governmental interest, amongst other criteria.

Please note that the premium processing program suspension applies only to H-1B filings.  Employers may continue to use the premium processing service for, among others, L-1, O-1, TN, and I-140 immigrant petition filings.

ARTICLE BY Katie P. Jacob & Gregory P. Adams of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP

© 2017 Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. All rights reserved.

USCIS Suspends Premium Processing for H-1B Extensions

USCIS has announced that it will suspend premium processing for all H-1B extension petitions between May 26, 2015, and July 27, 2015. It will use this time to implement the Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Spouses and ensure that these applications for work authorization will be adjudicated in a timely manner.

USCIS

Premium processing allows certain petitions and applications to be expedited. A decision or Request for Evidence (“RFE”) must be issued within 15 calendar days of filing the premium processing request. For this service, USCIS requires a $1,225 filing fee to be included with the petition.

USCIS will continue to process cases filed using premium processing prior to May 26, 2015. If an H-1B extension is filed under premium processing before May 26, 2015, but a decision is not issued within the 15-day period, USCIS will refund the premium processing fee. All other petitions are still eligible for premium processing.

ARTICLE BY Jessica Feinstein of Jackson Lewis P.C.
Jackson Lewis P.C. © 2015