Premium processing resumed for universities, research institutions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it will resume premium processing for certain cap-exempt H-1B petitions.

Key points:

• Effective immediately, premium processing will resume for H-1B petitions if the petitioner is (1) an institution of higher education; (2) a nonprofit organization affiliated with or related to an institution of higher education; or (3) a nonprofit or governmental research organization.
• Premium processing will also be resumed for petitions where the employee will be employed at a cap-exempt institution or organization.
• USCIS announced in June that it would resume premium processing for H-1B petitions filed on behalf of physicians in the Conrad 30 waiver program.
• Those who qualify for premium processing as outlined above can now file a Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, either with an H-1B petition or after an H-1B petition has been submitted but before it has been adjudicated.

Background: USCIS suspended H-1B premium processing in April, saying the reason was to focus on backlogged petitions. USCIS said Monday it “plans to resume premium processing of other H-1B petitions as workloads permit.”

BAL Analysis: While USCIS has resumed premium processing for some H-1B petitions and said it will “make additional announcements with specific details related to when we will begin accepting premium processing” for other petitions, the service is still not available for most H-1B petitions. Employers should continue to expect delays in H-1B receipt notices for H-1B petitions for which premium processing remains suspended. BAL will continue following USCIS developments on this issue and will update clients if premium processing is resumed for more H-1B petitions.

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

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