Over the past week, USCIS has issued several updates including the expansion of premium processing services and bundling of H-1B and L-1 Visa spouses requests.
USCIS Announces the Expansion of Premium Processing Services Commencing January 30, 2023
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on January 12 its next expansion phase of premium processing services. The premium processing service allows for quicker adjudication of both immigrant and nonimmigrant petition requests so that benefits requests that might otherwise take months for review and adjudication are processed more swiftly.
Commencing January 30, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all new and pending I-140 petitions for E13 multinational executive and managerial petitions and second preference national interest waiver petitions. These petitions will be adjudicated within 45 days. Historically, USCIS has not accepted premium processing for these classifications of employment-based immigrant petitions and the processing times for other premium processing cases have been a 15-calendar day turnaround. To date, premium processing has been utilized for the H-1B, L1, O, R-1, E1 and E2, P, and TN nonimmigrant visa categories in addition to the employment-based first preference extraordinary alien category and second and third preference employment-based categories.
It is also expected that in March 2023, USCIS will further expand its premium processing services to pending applications for employment authorization filed by F-1 student visa holders for optional practical training (OPT) and STEM OPT. Details are expected in February 2023 regarding the upcoming expansion of premium processing for F-1 visa holders , and in June 2023 for J-1 visa holders and students requesting changes of status.
To date, the premium processing filing fee is $2,500, in addition to the standard filing fee for the petition benefit requested. USCIS has recently also announced an increase in filing fees, with its pending proposal to hike filing fees by an average of 40% per application.
H-1B and L-1 Visa Spouses Requests For Extension of Stay Will be ‘Bundled’ With Underlying Extension Petition of Principal Applicant Per Class Action Settlement
Recently, USCIS instituted a policy of separating applications for extension of nonimmigrant visa stays for the spouses of H-1B and L-1 visa designates. In some cases, it can take up to two years to process such requests, resulting in the inability of a spouse to continue working with authorization. Additionally, in some instances, this policy prevented international travel. Many blamed the prior administration for this change in the agency’s historic policy of concurrently adjudicating requests for extensions of stay for principal workers and accompanying family members. In March 2019, the agency indicated that it would collect biometrics for H-4 spouses who would submit a request for employment authorization, further jeopardizing and delaying issuance of employment authorization cards and the ability for work for the spouse of an H-1B nonimmigrant worker. As a result, processing times for these specific applications backlogged significantly.
In last week’s settlement agreement, Edakunni v. Mayorkas, USCIS will return to its policy of concurrently processing extensions of stay and employment authorization requests for family members when adjudicating the principal applicant’s request for extension of nonimmigrant visa status.
For decades, USCIS has adjudicated requests for extension of stay for family members simultaneous with the principal employee’s requests. The disruption and delays experienced from March 2019 to date will now be rectified, and family members of nonimmigrants working in the United States may now have assurance that their requests will be considered with along with the principal employee’s request for extension of stay, granting continued ability to work in the United States.
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