Premium processing fees to increase Monday

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that starting Monday, Oct. 19, its fees will increase for the expedited “premium processing” service. The announcement follows a stop-gap budget resolution signed into law Oct. 1 that enacted changes to premium processing to address ongoing USCIS budget issues.

Key Points:

• The premium processing fee will increase from $1,440 to $2,500 for all petition types for which premium processing is currently available (except H-2B and R-1 petitions which will increase to $1,500).
• Requests for premium processing (Form I-907) postmarked on or after Oct. 19 must include the new fee amount. USCIS will reject the request and return the filing fee for filings with the incorrect amount.
• For filings sent by commercial courier such as UPS, FedEx and DHL, the date on the courier receipt will be considered the postmark date.

Background: Premium processing is an optional expedited service for an additional fee that guarantees a response from USCIS within 15 days. The budget resolution also requires USCIS to expand premium processing to additional petition types. The agency has not yet announced how it will expand premium processing to the additional designated categories. Today’s announcement states that USCIS is not yet taking that action.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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