USCIS Implements The Last of Premium Processing
US Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS came forward with a surprising announcement on 12 January 2023. It was made clear that the final phase of the expansion of premium processing of form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, as per the EB-1 and EB-2 migrant categories, is going to start soon.
So, who is likely to be affected by this announcement? Well, it is going to affect newly filed petitions along with the previously submitted form I-140 petitions. To be more clear, the final phase is going to affect every petition submitted under categories, like E-13 multinational executive and EB-1C manager. Plus, petitions filed under the E21 category as a member of professions holding advanced degrees or exceptional qualities interested in acquiring a national interest waiver or NIW will also be affected.
When will the Premium Processing Policy Become Effective?
The final phase of premium processing is going to start on 30 January 2023.
Now, let’s talk about the petitions that USCIS will deal with according to the new policy;
USCIS will implement the new policy on all previously filed E13 multinational executive and manager petitions and E21 NIW petitions. Furthermore, every new petition filed under these categories is going to be considered as per the new policy.
What’s important to note here is that anyone who wants to ask for a premium processing upgrade must submit Form I-907, also called Request for Premium Processing Service.
Everyone came to know about this new policy of premium processing when the final rule, called Implementation of the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, was announced. It was published in the Federal Register on 30 March 2022. While introducing the final rule, USCIS also made it clear that the premium processing will be expanded to some additional forms over a period of three years.
Time and Cost of Premium Processing
While the filing fee of premium processing remains fixed at $2500, USCIS is now going to take 45 days to deal with all pending and new petitions under the categories discussed before.
Moreover, according to the new rule, USCIS is not going to start premium processing of petitions until it gets all prerequisites for adjudication. As a result, the 45-day processing window will not begin until the agency receives all the documentation required by the law for a particular case type. Therefore, it might take longer than 45 days for petitioners who have not submitted all the documents to have their petitions processed.
In case a Notice of Intent to Deny, also called NOID, or a Request for Evidence, known as RFE, is issued to the petitioners, the 45-day window restarts once petitioners respond to the notices.
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