{"id":2337,"date":"2018-08-31T10:49:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T17:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swlgpc.com\/eng\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2018-08-31T10:49:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T17:49:40","slug":"uscis-extends-expands-suspension-premium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/uscis-extends-expands-suspension-premium\/","title":{"rendered":"USCIS Extends and Expands Suspension of H-1B Premium Processing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2018, the United States and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/news\/alerts\/uscis-will-temporarily-suspend-premium-processing-fiscal-year-2019-h-1b-cap-petitions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">temporary suspension<\/a> of premium processing for H-1B petitions that are subject to the H-1B CAP. On August 28, 2018, USCIS announced an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/news\/uscis-extends-and-expands-suspension-premium-processing-h-1b-petitions-reduce-delays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">extension of the temporary suspension and expanded it<\/a> to include certain additional H-1B petitions beginning on September 11, 2018. USCIS claims that the suspension and expansion will help the Service reduce overall H-1B processing times.<\/p>\n<h3>Who Is Affected?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The expanded suspension now applies to all H-1B petitions filed at the Vermont and California Service Centers.<\/li>\n<li>H-1B petitions that were subject to the H-1B CAP for Fiscal Year 2019 will continue to be unable to file for Premium Processing until at least February 19, 2019.<\/li>\n<li>H-1B petitions that are not currently suspended that had a properly filed Form I-907 will be processed with Premium Processing until September 11, 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Under two criteria, USCIS will refund the Premium Processing fee:\n<ul>\n<li>If the petitioner filed Form I-907 for an H-1B petition before September 11, 2018 and<\/li>\n<li>USCIS did not take adjudicative action on the case within the 15-calendar-day processing period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Who Isn&#8217;t Affected?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>H-1B CAP exempt petitions that are filed exclusively at the California Service Center because the petitioner is CAP exempt or because the beneficiary will be employed at a qualifying CAP exempt institution, entity, or organization.<\/li>\n<li>H-1B petitions that are filed exclusively at the Nebraska Service Center by a petitioner requesting a &#8220;Continuation of previously approved employment without change with the same employer&#8221; with a concurrent request to:\n<ul>\n<li>Notify the office in Part 4 so each beneficiary can obtain a visa or be admitted; or<\/li>\n<li>Extend the stay of each beneficiary because the beneficiary now holds this status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Any other nonimmigrant classifications that are filed on Form I-129.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Expedite H-1B Option<\/h3>\n<p>While Premium Processing is temporarily suspended, petitioners may request to expedite an H-1B petition if they meet the criteria listed on USCIS&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/forms\/expedite-criteria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Expedite Criteria<\/a> webpage. All expedite requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by USCIS.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>In addition to H-1B CAP subject petitions for Fiscal Year 2019, USCIS will reject any Form I-907 Requests for Premium Processing Service filed with a Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant worker that is affected by this suspension beginning on September 11, 2018. In the event that a petitioner submits a check that combines the fees for Form I-907 and Form I-129 H-1B fees, both forms will be rejected by USCIS.<\/p>\n<p>Please do not hesitate to <a href=\"https:\/\/swlgpc.com\/eng\/contact-us\/get-in-touch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contact our offices<\/a> for any questions or concerns you may have regarding this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2018, the United States and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a temporary suspension of premium processing for H-1B petitions that are subject to the H-1B CAP. On August 28, 2018, USCIS announced an extension of the temporary suspension and expanded it to include certain additional H-1B petitions beginning on September 11, 2018. USCIS claims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17,14,8,9,11,38,10],"tags":[66,44,77,26,60,28],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}