Premium Processing for EB3 I-140 Starts, within 15 days
We reported in later July that USCIS will start premium service for EB3 I-
140 sometime in August. USCIS announced on August 18 that the premium
service for EB3 I-140 is available from August 28.
Under premium processing service, USCIS guarantees it will process these
applications within 15 calendar days for an additional processing fee of $1,
000. It will issue either an approval notice, or where appropriate, a notice
of intent to deny, a request for evidence or open an investigation for
fraud or misrepresentation, within 15 calendar days of receipt. If the
petition is not processed within 15 calendar days, USCIS will refund the $1,
000 fee and continue to process the request as part of the Premium
Processing Service.
Starting on August 28, USCIS will begin accepting Premium Processing
requests from petitions involving two employment-based immigration
categories within EB3: EB3-Professionals and EB-3 Skilled Workers. Premium
processing is not available to “other workers” in the EB-3 category for
jobs that do not require two years of education, training or experience.
In addition, USCIS will release a new Request for Premium Processing
Services form (Form I-907), to include expansion of Premium Processing
Service to the newly designated classifications. All requests for Premium
Processing Service received on August 18, 2006 or later must be filed using
the new Form I-907. The new form is available from August 21 on the USCIS
website at www.uscis.gov.
However, premium service for EB1 and EB2 will not be available immediately.
It’s unclear when they would be rolled out by USCIS. We will monitor this
important immigration issue and provide more information to you as soon as
it is available.
Then, who can benefit from this premium service? How? The addition of this
new premium processing will be a valuable tool for many people, especially
those with an urgent timeframe to change status. For example, a great
benefit of using premium processing for I-140 is to avail oneself of §104(c
) of AC21 to obtain 3-year extensions of H1B status. Under the new policy,
if a beneficiary has an approved I-140 petition but cannot complete the
green card process due to retrogression, he can apply for a 3-year extension
of H1B status at the end of the six-year H1B limitation period.
(08/19/2006)