Premium processing of H-1B extensions resumes

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.

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