Premium Processing Resumes for All Pending H-1B Petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018

USCIS has announced that it will resume premium processing on Tuesday, February 19, 2019, for all H-1B petitions (transfers, extensions, amendments, etc.) filed on or before December 21, 2018.

Employers who have received a transfer notice for a pending H-1B petition and are requesting premium processing service should submit the premium processing request to the service center now handling the petition. A copy of the transfer notice with the premium processing request should be included to avoid possible delays associated with the receipt of the premium processing request. 

When an employer requests premium processing service, USCIS guarantees either a decision or an RFE within 15 calendar days.  If there is an RFE, then the 15-day clock starts again once USCIS receives the reply to the RFE. The premium processing fee is $1,410.

The temporary suspension of premium processing remains in effect for H-1B petitions filed on or after December 22, 2018. In today’s announcement, USCIS said it plans to resume premium processing for the remaining categories of H-1B petitions as agency workloads permit.

The complete USCIS announcement can be found at this link.

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as soon as USCIS announces any changes.

This alert is for informational purposes only.  Please contact us if you would like to discuss this development further.