USCIS Premium Processing Updates
By
Dev B. Viswanath, Esq.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is implementing premium processing for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications. This expansion of premium processing only applies to certain previously filed Form I-140 petitions under an E13 multinational executive and manager classification or E21 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver (NIW). Petitioners who wish to request a premium processing upgrade must file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service.
The expansion will occur in phases:
- Beginning June 1, 2022, we will accept Form I-907 requests for E13 multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before Jan. 1, 2021.
- Beginning July 1, 2022, we will accept Form I-907 requests for E21 NIW petitions received on or before June 1, 2021, and E13 multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before March 1, 2021.
USCIS will reject premium processing requests for these classifications that are filed before their start date of June 1, 2022, or July 1, 2022. We will not accept new (initial) Forms I-140 with a premium processing request at this time.
On May 23, 2022, USCIS published a new version of Form I-907, dated 05/31/22. For the month of June, the agency will accept both the 09/30/20 and the 05/31/22 editions of Form I-907. Starting July 1, the agency will reject the older 09/30/20 edition of Form I-907.
USCIS announces Pre-Certification for Cases that they deem eligible
The USCIS has started to inform petitions and applicants of a screening process where the case is automatically identified as a pre-certified case for premium processing. If your case is eligible, the case will move to premium processing adjudication. The notification looks like this:
“Premium Processing Case is Eligible for Pre-Certification.
On May ___, 2022, we determined that the business sponsor for your Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, Receipt Number _________, meets our pre-certification requirements. Your premium-processing receipt notice contains contact information for direct inquiries on your case. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you move, contact the premium-processing unit directly to update your address.”
These steps by the Agency are steps being taken to speed up what has been deemed a huge backlog. USCIS has stated their commitment to reducing the backlog and moving cases along at reasonable speeds.