Starting June 10, USCIS to Begin Premium Processing for Remaining H-1B Cap Petitions

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At a glance

• USCIS will accept 15-day premium processing requests for all remaining FY 2020 H-1B cap cases starting on June 10.
• From June 10 to June 24, USCIS will not honor petitioners’ requests to use pre-paid mailers to send H-1B cap approvals and other final notices for new premium processing cases.

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The issue

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that starting June 10, it will accept premium processing requests for all remaining FY 2020 H-1B cap cases, including consular notification cases previously ineligible for the service. 

In order to request premium processing on an H-1B cap case, the petitioner must file Form I-907 and the $1,410 filing fee with the USCIS Service Center adjudicating the petition. 

How H-1B cap premium processing has been implemented this filing season

In March, USCIS announced that it would accept premium processing in stages during the FY 2020 H-1B cap filing season. USCIS began accepting FY 2020 H-1B cap cases on April 1, at which point only employers filing H-1B cap changes of status were able to request premium processing concurrently with their petitions. Starting May 20, H-1B change of status petitioners who did not initially request premium processing with their cap filings were permitted to upgrade their cases to premium processing.

Employers filing H-1B cap cases that did not request a change of status, including all requests for H-1B consular notification, were required to wait to upgrade to premium processing. Today’s announcement ends that wait and implements the final phase of premium processing; the agency will now accept all requests to upgrade any pending H-1B cap petition.

Use of pre-paid mailers on newly filed premium processing cases will not be honored from June 10 to June 24

USCIS has also announced that it will not honor petitioners’ requests to use pre-paid mailers to send H-1B cap approvals or other final notices on newly filed premium processed cases between June 10 and June 24. Instead, final notices will be sent by regular mail during this period. This means that employers and beneficiaries may wait longer to receive approval notices. 

What it means for employers

Employers who wish to request premium processing for H-1B consular notification cases should contact their Fragomen team. Employers may also continue to upgrade any H-1B change of status cap case in which premium processing has not yet been requested.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.