February 26, 2009
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that as of March 2, 2009, the Premium Processing service for I-140 petitions will be expanded to cover a new set of beneficiaries. The benefit of premium processing is that you may be able to obtain an approval of the immigrant visa petition within 15 business days, rather than having to wait for the months-long routine processing. An individual who has reached the end of the 6 years of H-1B stay in the U.S. is eligible to receive a three year extension if an I-140 has been approved.
The USCIS will begin to accept Form I-907 (Request for Premium Processing Service) connected with the immigrant visa petitions (Form I-140) filed on behalf of those beneficiaries who have:
- Reached the 6th year of statutory limitation of their H-1B stay, or will reach the end of their 6th year of H-1B stay within 60 days of filing the request for premium processing;
- Are only eligible for a further H-1B extension upon approval of the I-140 petition for the reason that the labor certification application (or the I-140 petition when there is no underlying labor certification) is less than one year old prior the end of the sixth year of H-1B status;
- No additional time under the H-1B limit that can be "re-captured" due to periods of travel outside the United States during the span of the 6 year H-1B period;
- No ability to obtain resident status due to a backlog in the immigrant visa priority date in their classification.
So who does this help? Previous to the new change, only those individuals who had 60 or fewer days left of H-1B but were still in H-1B status could take advantage of the premium processing available for I-140 petitions. Now if an individual actually exhausts the 6 years of stay in the US and has left the country, it appears that he or she is eligible to have the processing of the I-140 expedited so that once the I-140 is approved, a three year "extension" of H-1B status may be obtained.
If you believe that you are now eligible for premium processing of an I-140, please contact your attorney to review your circumstances.
