A bill has been unanimously passed by the House to expand premium processing service. Premium processing is an option for people to receive expedited review of their eligible applications and petitions filed with USCIS.
In order to be enforceable, the bill must now be passed by the Senate and then signed into law by the president. At present, it is unclear whether the Senate will pass this bill.
The bill proposed:
- For categories already eligible for premium processing (ex: O-1), the premium processing fee will increase from $1440 to $2500. The 15-day processing time would remain in place.
- Premium processing service will be expanded to cover new categories, including:
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- EB-1 Multinational Managers and EB-2 National Interest Waivers: The fee will be no more than $2500 and processing times no more than 45 days.
- I-539 application to change status to F, J or M: The fee will be no more than $1750 and processing times no more than 30 days.
- I-539 application to change or extend status for dependents of E-1/E-2, H, L, O, P, or R nonimmigrants: The fee will be no more than $1750 and processing times no more than 30 days.
- I-765 application for employment authorization: The fee will be no more than $1500 and processing times no more than 30 days.
What is the impact?
If signed into law, even with the increased filing fee, expansion of the premium processing service would be welcomed news for many people. Particularly, premium processing would dramatically reduce the adjudication timeline for EB-1 Multinational Manager and EB-2 National Interest Waiver immigrant petitions from 6-8+ months to less than 45 days, which will allow people to receive final decisions sooner and have more clarity to plan the next steps of their green card journey.
What’s next?
The U.S. Senate is currently not in session, and they are not scheduled to reconvene until September 2020. The White House has not commented on this bill.
It is unclear whether the bill will ultimately be signed into law. Legalpad is closely monitoring developments, and we will provide updates when more information becomes available.
