U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday it would extend premium processing to E-3 nonimmigrant visa petitioners.

Key Points:

  • Effective today, those submitting a Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker requesting change or extension of status to E-3 classification can request USCIS’ premium processing service.
  • Premium processing allows petitioners to pay an additional filing fee in return for expedited adjudication, generally within 15 days.

Additional Information: The E-3 visa classification is only available to Australian nationals in a specialty occupation. Australian nationals who are outside of the country can apply for E-3 nonimmigrant visas directly through the U.S. State Department; those inside the United States can do so by filing Form I-129 with USCIS. E-3 petitioners must (1) be nationals of Australia; (2) have a legitimate offer of employment in the United States; (3) have the required academic or qualifying credentials; and (4) be filling a position that qualifies as a specialty occupation.

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

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