A crowd of people crossing a crosswalk in a busy city

The Immigration Observer

USCIS Expands Premium Processing

January 17, 2023

As mandated by USCIS’ final rule, Implementation of the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, effective May 31, 2022, USCIS is continuing its phased approach to make premium processing available for various designated immigration benefit requests.

Beginning Jan. 30, 2023, USCIS will accept Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing for:

All pending EB-1 Multinational Executive/Manager petitions and National Interest Waiver NIW petitions

All initial EB-1 Multinational Executive/Manager petitions and National Interest Waiver NIW petitions

Currently, for EB-1 Multinational Executive/Manager petitions filed under regular processing, processing times at the Nebraska Service Center are approximately 12.5 months and processing times at the Texas Service Center are approximately 13.5 months. For NIW petitions filed under regular processing, approximate processing times are 16 months at the Nebraska Service Center and 19 months at the Texas Service Center. Cases filed via Premium Processing – for a filing fee of $2,500.00 – will be processed within 45 calendar days.

USCIS has announced the following timeline for additional premium processing expansion:

March 2023:     USCIS plans to expand premium processing to certain F-1 students seeking Optional Practical Training (OPT) and F-1 students seeking STEM OPT extensions who have a pending Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization.

April 2023:       USCIS plans to expand premium processing to F-1 students seeking OPT and F-1 students seeking STEM OPT extensions who are filing an initial Form I-765.

May 2023:        USCIS plans to expand premium processing for certain student and exchange visitors who are filing initial Form I-539 applications in June 2023.

Under USCIS’ final rule, Form I-539 applications approved for premium processing will require a fee of $1,750 and will be processed within 30 days of filing. Forms I-765 approved for premium processing will require a fee of $1,500 and will be processed within 30 days.

In its latest announcement, USCIS assured its adherence to the legislative requirement that this expansion of premium processing will not result in an increase in processing times for immigration benefit requests which do not qualify for premium processing or an increase in the regular processing time of any immigration benefit requests.

Find an article...