If an employer pays an additional fee for “premium processing”, the government guarantees to make a decision on certain applications within 15 days. However, starting May 26, 2015, USCIS has temporarily suspended premium processing for all H-1B Extension of Stay (EOS) petitions. Premium processing will resume July 27, 2015 (or perhaps sooner). USCIS will continue to premium process eligible H-1B EOS petitions that were filed prior to May 26, 2015.
This news does NOT affect other H-1B petitions, including those petitions subject to the H-1B lottery and amendments (without extension). Premium Processing also remains available for all other previously eligible immigration applications.
This temporary suspension is designed to allow USCIS to divert resources to meet the expected high demand for employment authorization from certain H-4 spouses, a rule which (not coincidentally) also went into effect on May 26, 2015. As we advised in a previous blog, this rule will allow spouses in valid H-4 status to apply for work authorization if their H-1B spouse is the beneficiary of an approved Immigrant Visa Petition (Form I-140), or has valid H-1B status beyond the six-year limit based on a labor certification application (or Immigrant Visa Petition) that has been pending for more than 365 days. Because regulations (and a pending law suit) require USCIS to adjudicate within 90 days employment authorization applications, USCIS has shuffled its resources to meet this processing time.
In very rare circumstances, USCIS will accept requests for expedited processing during this suspension, which will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and granted at the discretion of the Director. Grounds for expedited processing include severe financial loss to the company or individual, extreme urgent situation, humanitarian grounds, and USCIS error.
Notwithstanding, the impact of the premium processing suspension for H-1B EOS petitions will hopefully be minimal for affected foreign nationals for the following reasons:
• To ensure maintenance of status, the H-1B EOS petition needs only be filed (not approved) by the current expiration date. So as long as these petitions are timely filed, individuals will not be falling out of valid status;
• While the foreign-national beneficiary must be present in the U.S. on the date the H-1B EOS petition is filed, they might be able to travel internationally during the adjudication process (though we do not recommend it);
• H-1B change of employer petitions allow the employee to commence working for the petitioning employer upon receipt of the petition by USCIS (the petition does not need to be approved); and
• The current regular processing adjudication time for H-1B EOS petitions at both the California and Vermont Service Centers is 2 months, which is not significant compared to the delay in adjudication of some other immigration processes.
While we have already identified those clients who are likely to be impacted by this announcement, please contact our office if you have any concerns. Most definitely reach out to us before booking that fancy summer vacation abroad so that we can discuss the best strategy if you will have an H-1B EOS petition pending.