USCIS: H-1B Premium Processing Available Again Effective Immediately

USCIS has just announced that effective today, July 13, 2017, they are resuming accepting Form I-907 premium processing service requests for all H-1B petitions.     Previously, in mid-May, USCIS had announced that they are suspending the premium processing service for certain H-1B extension or transfer petitions until July 27, 2015 and we are glad to see that USCIS has been able to resume the premium processing service two weeks earlier than planned.

Background of the H-1B Premium Processing Suspension

The premium processing service for certain H-1B petitions (those requesting extension of stay – most notably, H-1B extensions and H-1B transfers) was suspended between May 26, 2015 and July 13, 2015 in order to accommodate the spike in the demand and number of H-4 Spouse EAD filings after the program opened on May 26th.

USCIS Statement on Resuming Premium Processing

This is USCIS’s statement from today,

We previously announced on May 19, 2015, that premium processing service would be suspended for Form I-129 H-1B extension of stay petitions from May 26, 2015 to July 27, 2015. The temporary suspension allowed us to implement the Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses final rule in a timely manner and begin adjudication of applications for employment authorization filed by H-4 nonimmigrants under the new regulation. Premium processing remained available for all other types of Form I-129 H-1B petitions during the temporary suspension.

We have closely monitored our workloads and have determined that we can resume premium processing service for H-1B extension of stay petitions on July 13, 2015.

Conclusion

We are delighted to see that the premium processing service has been reinstated.     While we applaud USCIS’s intent on making sufficient resources available to the H-4 Spouse EAD program, we have seen a number of cases where the suspension of the premium processing service had created (sometimes severely negative) consequences to both H-1B employers and employees.       We now anticipate a (hopefully, short) wave of H-1B upgrade filings.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any help in connection with this unanticipated H-1B premium processing disruption and of service.    We are also assisting many H-4 Spouse EAD applicants and we are happy to offer information and a quote of our H-4 Spouse EAD filing services.   Please feel free to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to obtain developments on this and related topics.