Starting April 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will temporarily suspend premium processing (i.e., 15-day expedited processing) for all H-1B petitions for up to 6 months. Importantly, since April 3, 2017 marks the start of the cap-subject H-1B petitions acceptance for the Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18), the suspension will affect all petitions filed for the FY18 H-1B regular cap and advanced degree cap. The suspension also applies to H-1B cap-exempt, Extension of Stay, and Change of Employer petitions.
Consult your immigration counsel regarding expedited strategies for any pending and not yet filed H-1B petitions. For H-1B extension of stay petition filings, it is particularly important to carefully plan filing options if the beneficiary has an expired or soon-to-expire driver’s license, upcoming foreign travel plans, or has other reasons that may require expedited adjudication of their petition. March 30, 2017 is the last day premium processing requests may be filed for any new H-1B petitions that are not subject to the annual cap and for any H-1B petitions currently pending with USCIS.