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All H-1B Petitions Are Again Eligible for Premium Processing

March 12, 2019

As of today, March 12th, USCIS is no longer restricting Premium Processing Service for any H-1B petitions. All H-1B petitions are again eligible to be filed with a Request for Premium Processing Service, and all pending H-1B petitions are again eligible to be upgraded to Premium Processing.

USCIS had previously placed restrictions on Premium Processing Service for all cap-subject H-1B petitions filed in April 2018. They subsequently expanded that restriction to additional categories of H-1B petition in September 2018. All such restrictions have now been lifted.

In their announcement, USCIS provided guidance for how to ensure that Premium Processing upgrade requests are processed successfully, including:

• If you received an RFE (request for evidence) on a pending H-1B petition, and if you wish to upgrade that petition to Premium Processing, submit the RFE response with the upgrade request.
• If your H-1B petition was transferred between USCIS offices after it was submitted, the upgrade request should be sent to the new Service Center, i.e. the Service Center to which the H-1B petition was transferred.
  • If you received a transfer notice, that notice should be included with the upgrade request
  • If you mistakenly submit the upgrade request to the original Service Center, USCIS will forward the request to the Service Center now processing the petition, but the 15-day clock will not begin until the request is received by the new center.

USCIS provided the below chart to help determine how to address and mail upgrade requests:

TAGS: H-1B, Premium Processing, USCIS