United States

Premium processing of H-1B extensions resumes

13 Jul 15

UNITED STATES

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has resumed premium processing of H-1B extension-of-stay petitions today, after suspending the service for more than one month.

Employers may now request premium processing of petitions to extend the stay of H-1B employees. Premium processing requests received before today will be rejected. In addition, USCIS cautioned that it will only accept the new version of Form I-907 Request for Premium Processing and will reject older versions of the form.

The agency temporarily stopped accepting requests for the expedited processing of H-1B extension petitions so that it could adjudicate the expected influx of applications under the new H-4 employment authorization rule, which took effect May 26. Service is resuming earlier than expected; USCIS originally announced that it planned to suspend the service from May 26 to July 27, but has decided it is now able to handle the requests.

BAL Analysis: Employers may contact their BAL attorney to file requests for premium processing for affected H-1B extension petitions or to upgrade existing H-1B extension petitions to premium processing that were filed during the temporary suspension of service.

Copyright © 2016 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries please contact copyright@bal.com.

Related News