Publication

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they will resume premium processing[1] for all fiscal year (FY) 2019 H-1B cap petitions beginning on Monday, January 28, 2019. This will include petitions that are eligible for the master’s cap advanced degree exemption.

Premium processing helps to expedite H-1B cap petitions and guarantees that USCIS process the petition within 15 calendar days. If the USCIS does not take any adjudicative action within those 15 days, the petitioner will be refunded the processing service fee and the USCIS will continue to expedite the petition. Since USCIS has already received enough petitions to meet the FY 2019 cap, this premium processing service is only available to pending petitions, not new ones.

Any petitioner who receives a request for evidence (RFE) for pending FY 2019 cap petitions should include their RFE response along with any request for premium processing that they may submit.

The temporary suspension[2] of premium processing for all other categories of H-1B petitions to which it applies remains in effect.

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/forms/how-do-i-use-premium-processing-service

[2] https://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-extends-and-expands-suspension-premium-processing-h-1b-petitions-reduce-delays