USCIS issued a press release today announcing that certain employment-based immigrant petitions will become eligible for premium processing service on August 28, 2006.
For an additional fee of $1000, premium processing service guarantees that USCIS will process an application or petition within 15 calendar days of receiving a Request for Premium Processing Service.
Premium processing will be made available for ONLY the following employment based (EB) I-140 petitions:
- EB-3 skilled workers
- EB-3 professionals
Premium processing is not being extended at this time to other I-140 categories, including extraordinary ability petitions, outstanding researcher petitions, multinational manager petitions, national interest waiver petitions, EB-2 petitions supported by labor certifications, or EB-3 “other worker” petitions.
The availability of “premium processing” for these EB-3 petitions may be of limited utility, given that an EB-3 petition must be supported by a labor certification filed before March of 2002 in order for the beneficiary to be eligible to file an I-485 application (application to adjust status to permanent resident) at this time. For EB-3 petitions based on labor certifications filed after April of 2002, a backlog in the immigrant visa quota means that even with an approved I-140, the beneficiary will not be able to file for adjustment of status until the application’s “priority date” (place in the quota line) is reached.
For questions about particular cases, please contact the firm.
