Articles Posted in Premium Processing

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is expanding its premium processing service for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, and are classified under the EB-1 and EB-2. This expanded premium processing service is only for certain previously filed Form I-140 petitions under an E13 multinational executive and manager classification or E21 classification, member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver (NIW). 

*The expansion will occur in phases: 

• Beginning June 1, 2022, we will accept Form I-907 requests for E13 multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before Jan. 1, 2021. 

The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) provides an updated ‘processing times’ in table form, with information on FY2021 second quarterly completions; January 2021 to March 2021. These figures indicate the time that it takes from the date the case is received at AAO coming from the Service Center or District Office to completion.

AAO Processing Times were released with processing dates as of 4/13/21. If you filed an appeal, please review the link below to determine the applicable processing time associated with your particular case.

Note: Starting with the January 2017 Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Processing Times Report, the AAO has changed how it presents processing time data. The AAO will now provide, by form type, the total number of case completions for the fiscal year quarter and the percentage completed within 180 days, cases completed divided by their projected case goal.

USCIS announced on Friday, May 29^th, that they will resume premium processing! Starting this month, they will resume premium processing for Form I-129 and I-140 in phases.

Effective June 1, 2020, USCIS will accept Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for all eligible Form I-140 petitions.

For detailed information and effective dates, review USCIS News Alert, “USCIS Resumes Premium Processing for Certain Petitions”

On Wednesday, October 30^th, USCIS announced that beginning December 2, 2019 they would be increasing the fee for some premium processing requests. The premium processing fee for both Forms, I-129 and I-140 will increase. The fee for requesting premium processing for these two forms will increase from $1,410 to $1,440. USCIS states that the increase is tied to an increase in inflation using the Consumer Price Index.

*Premium processing is an optional service currently authorized for certain petitioners filing Forms I-129 or I-140. The system allows petitioners to request 15-day processing of these forms if they pay an extra fee. The premium processing fee is paid in addition to the base filing fee and any other applicable fees. It cannot be waived. * USCIS

For further details please review the USCIS News Release, “USCIS Adjusting Premium Processing Fee”.

USCIS announced on Friday, August 31^st that they would be increasing the Premium Processing fee for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers. The Premium Processing fee will increase on October 1^st, from $1,225 to $1,410, an increase of about 15%. The government is sighting that there has been no increase in this fee since 2010 and that the increase is based on an adjustment for inflation.

The USCIS Chief Financial Officer, Joe Moore stated, “Because premium processing fees have not been adjusted since 2010, our ability to improve the adjudications and service processes for all petitioners has been hindered as we’ve experienced significantly higher demand for immigration benefits.”

For further details please review the USCIS News Release, “USCIS Adjusting Premium Processing Fee“.