As of Tuesday, September 19, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed accepting requests for premium processing for cap subject petitions. The process is only available for pending petitions, not new submissions, since USCIS received enough petitions in April to meet the FY 2018 cap. Premium processing of H1B visas was suspended in April to handle the huge rush of new petitions. However, as of today, USCIS will resume premium processing for all 65,000 H1B visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2018 cap and all 20,000 additional petitions that are set aside each year for H-1B workers with a US higher educational degree (“master’s cap”). Premium processing remains temporarily suspended for all other H-1B petitions, such as extension and amendment petitions but plans to reinstate it as the agency workloads permit. No time frame is presently set. 

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. When a petitioner requests the agency’s premium processing service, USCIS guarantees a 15-day processing time for adjudication.