USCIS announced today that premium processing will be offered in a “two-phased approach” for H-1B petitions filed in this year’s lottery. In the first phase, which will begin on April 1, 2019, USCIS will accept requests for premium processing for H-1B petitions filed with a request to change status. In the second phase, which is expected to begin in June, USCIS will accept requests for premium processing for H-1B petitions that were filed with a request for consular notification.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its April 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was very little movement in most categories this month. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by one month while there was no movement for Chinese and Indian nationals. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by three months while Indian nationals advanced by only three days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by twenty-four days, while Indian nationals advanced by one month, and Philippine nationals advanced by three months.
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The Department of Homeland Security has extended Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for nationals of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan until January 2, 2020, following a federal court order that temporarily prevents DHS from terminating TPS for nationals of these countries.
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USCIS announced today that premium processing would resume for ALL H-1B petitions tomorrow, March 12, 2019. Finally! The announcement was silent on whether premium would be available for the upcoming H-1B visa lottery. We recommend giving USCIS a week to clarify its position in this regard.
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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will release a new Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, on March 8, 2019, which will require all accompanying dependents (“co-applicants”) in the application to pay for and complete biometrics services (fingerprinting and taking photo) with USCIS. This includes children. Each accompanying dependent also will need to sign an updated Supplement A of the Form I-539. Effective March 21, 2019, USCIS will only accept the new version of the Form and will reject any applications using prior versions.
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