U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has resumed premium processing for certain cap-exempt H-1B petitions effective last week. The H-1B visa has an annual cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year. Additionally, there is an annual “master’s cap” of 20,000 petitions filed for beneficiaries with a U.S. master’s degree or higher.
Exempt
Premium processing will resume for petitions that may be exempt from the cap if the H-1B petitioner is:
* An institution of higher education;
* A non-profit related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education; or
* A non-profit research or governmental research organization.
Premium processing has also resumed for petitions that may also be exempt if the beneficiary will be employed at a qualifying cap-exempt institution, organization or entity.
Starting last week, those cap-exempt petitioners who are eligible for premium processing can file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. Form I-907 can be filed together with an H-1B petition or separately for a pending H-1B petition.
USCIS previously announced that premium processing resumed on June 26 for H-1B petitions filed on behalf of physicians under the Conrad 30 waiver program as well as interested government agency waivers.
As workloads permit
USCIS plans to resume premium processing of other H-1B petitions as workloads permit. USCIS will make additional announcements with specific details related to when we will begin accepting premium processing for those petitions. Until then, premium processing remains temporarily suspended for all other H-1B petitions. USCIS will reject any Form I-907 filed for those petitions, and if the petitioner submitted one check combining the Form I-907 and Form I-129 fees, USCIS will have to reject both forms.
Caribbean nationals
A number of Caribbean nationals living and working legally in South Florida and other regions the US were able to do so through job-related H-1B visas.
