Premium processing is a highly useful program for some petitioners.  For example, the H-1B portability regulations allow H-1B workers to change employers and begin working with the new employer when USCIS receives the new employer's H-1B petition and before it is approved.  This benefit makes premium processing unnecessary for most petitioners seeking an H-1B change of employer.

Premium processing becomes useful when an employee candidate must change status and cannot begin work until the petition is approved.  A student seeking change of status to H-1B and who faces the imminent expiration of her OPT work authorization card is one who would benefit from premium processing. It is also useful for new hires with questionable status.  Many H-1B workers are laid off and remain in the United States for a period of weeks or months looking for a job before they find new employment.  This is illegal and the correct way to repair that situation is for the foreign national to depart the United States and apply for a new visa abroad.  While inconvenient, it generally takes less than a month.

When a petitioner selects and pays for premium processing, USCIS guarantees it will issue either a decision or a request for evidence within 15 calendar days.  If USCIS issues a request for evidence, it has another 15 calendar days to issue a final decision after it receives your response.  Unfortunately, many practitioners believe some USCIS adjudicators issue requests for evidence to allow themselves more time to adjudicate cases.

An important added benefit of premium processing is that the petitioning company receives an e-mail address and phone number for access to an adjudications officer or information officer who can answer questions about the case.

Premium processing is available for the following types of cases:

  * The availability date is the date that the classification was initially deemed eligible for Premium Processing Service.

** The termination date reflects the last day that USCIS accepted filings requesting that specific classification. If a date is entered in this column, that classification is currently ineligible for filing.

*** Premium Processing Service for nonimmigrant religious worker visa petitions was initially suspended on November 28, 2006. On July 20, 2009, USCIS resumed acceptance of Form I-907 for I-129 petitions seeking R-1 classification but only from those petitioners who have previously completed a successful on-site inspection at the location where the beneficiary will be employed.  See the Related Links section of this page for a USCIS Update and accompanying Questions and Answers on reinstitution of premium processing service for nonimmigrant religious worker visa classification.

Olender faced a situation in late 2010 where a USCIS adjudicator sent a request for evidence asking for proof of current employment and valid status for an H-1B worker who was outside of the United States.  We took the position that the request for evidence was illegitimate because we included adequate documentation showing the beneficiary's valid status up until he left the United States.  We were able to persuade USCIS management that the RFE asked for unnecessary evidence and USCIS refunded our client's filing fee, as shown in the copy of the check on this page.

On November 23, 2010 the filing fee for premium processing rose from $1,000 to $1,225.