{"id":561,"date":"2017-03-04T03:17:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T15:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swlgpc.com\/en\/blog\/?p=561"},"modified":"2017-03-04T03:17:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T15:17:39","slug":"important-alert-uscis-suspends-premium-processing-for-h-1b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/important-alert-uscis-suspends-premium-processing-for-h-1b\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPORTANT ALERT: USCIS SUSPENDS PREMIUM PROCESSING FOR H-1B"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, USCIS announced that it will temporarily suspend premium processing for\u00a0<strong><u>all<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0H-1B visa petitions beginning on April 3, 2017 for as long as six months.\u00a0Importantly, this suspension will even apply to all FY2018 cap-subject H-1B petitions.\u00a0This includes NEW CAP H-1b CASES, Change of Employer H-1b petitions, H-1b extensions and H-1b amendments<\/p>\n<p>USCIS claims the reason for suspending premium processing is to reduce overall H-1B processing times.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of premium processing may greatly affect current H-1B visa holders and prospective H-1B applicants from traveling, renewing driver&#8217;s licenses, or even begin working under their sponsoring employer.<\/p>\n<p>In light of the temporary suspension of premium processing, you should take the following under consideration:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>If possible, foreign nationals whose H-1B status is nearing expiration and would like to file with premium processing should file before April 3, 2017. In general, employers should aim to file H-1B petitions as early as possible for extensions for their employees.<\/li>\n<li>Foreign nationals who are beneficiaries of a FY2018 cap-subject H-1B petition should be cautious about any travel outside of the United States during the processing period.<\/li>\n<li>On a case by case basis, USCIS may on rare occasion grant an expedition of an H-1B petition if it meets the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/forms\/expedite-criteria\">Expedite Criteria<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Contact a Business Immigration Specialist with any questions or concerns you may have regarding this temporary suspension.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>SWLG will continue to provide important updates on this matter as they become available.<\/p>\n<p>Premium processing is expected to remain available for other eligible nonimmigrant petitions filed on Form I-129, including L-1 and O-1 petitions, and for eligible I-140 petitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, USCIS announced that it will temporarily suspend premium processing for\u00a0all\u00a0H-1B visa petitions beginning on April 3, 2017 for as long as six months.\u00a0Importantly, this suspension will even apply to all FY2018 cap-subject H-1B petitions.\u00a0This includes NEW CAP H-1b CASES, Change of Employer H-1b petitions, H-1b extensions and H-1b amendments USCIS claims the reason for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[14,8,9,11],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561"}],"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=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}