USCIS has announced that it will resume premium processing this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 for all H-1B petitions. This is the final step of a 3-stage reinstatement of premium processing for H-1B petitions. After the nearly 6-month suspension, which started last August, USCIS first began accepting premium processing on cap-subject H-1B petitions filed last year. Then last month it reinstated premium processing for any H-1B petition filed prior to December 21, 2018.
USCIS’s policy on premium processing suspensions began a year ago in April when it announced that cap-subject H-1B petitions could not be filed with premium processing. It then extended and expanded the suspension in August 2018 to include all H-1B petitions.
It remains to be seen if USCIS will be able to honor premium processing requests on the cap-subject H-1B petitions that will be filed starting April 1. Considering the many backlogged H-1Bs that will certainly interfile premium processing requests, we expect that USCIS will receive thousands of requests in the coming days. Coupled with that is the recent announcement that H-4 EADs will likely be going away soon and the new biometrics requirements for dependent spouses, so many of those corresponding H-1B extensions will likely be filed with premium processing as well.
USCIS’s rate hike on premium processing requests, from $1225 to $1410, is now in effect, so any new requests should be accompanied by the higher fee.
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