Premium Processing Start Date For Phase-1 & Updates On Pre-Paid Mailers
Are you waiting for the Premium processing start date for the FY 2020? Here is the latest announcement from USCIS regarding the premium processing of certain H-1B petitions. u00a0 May 20, 2019: Premium Processing Start Date USCIS has announced the premium processing start date for the upcoming Fiscal Year, which is May 20th, 2019. The petitioners who have filed the Form I-907 (Request for Premium Processing) along with the H-1B petition requesting a status change are eligible for this premium processing. Any petitioner who hasnu2019t filed the Form I-907 along with anu00a0H-1B petitionu00a0can now upgrade to premium processing from May 20,2019. The Two-Phase Approach Earlier in March, USCIS has announced a two-phase approach for premium processing of the H-1B petitions during the FY 2020. The First phase of premium processing includes all the Cap-Subject petitions requesting the status change. And the second phase includes all the remaining Cap-Subject petitions. This update would ease up the burden on USCIS making it easier for them to manage the premium processing requests, rather than suspending it like the previous years. USCIS has canceled the premium processing in the previous years due to anu00a0increase in demand. This premium processing start dateu00a0is only for the first phase of premium processing. However, USCIS will notify the confirmed date for theu00a0second phase, which will not be until Juneu00a02019. At this time, premium processing for H-1B petitions that are exempt from the cap, such as theu00a0extension of stay requests remains available. Temporary Suspension of Pre-Paid Mailer From May 20th u2013June 3rd USCIS has temporarily suspended the pre-paid mailer during theu00a0first phase of premium processing from May 20thu00a0tou00a0June 3rd. Instead, they will use the regular mail for sending out final notices of premium processing for H-1B petitions requesting a status change. The pre-paid mailer is a time-consuming manual process which will delay the issuance of an approval notice compared to the standard process. This is due to the surge inu00a0premium processing requests which brings in a limitation on the resources of USCIS. So, USCIS has suspended the pre-paid mailer t0 make sure that premium processing is carried out in a timely manner. Hence, they will use the regular mail in which the printing of the notices and the process is fully automated. However, after this two-week period, USCIS will resume sending out the notices in pre-paid mailers sent by the petitioner. USCIS has confirmed thatu00a0it will follow a similar approach when it commences the second phase of premium processing.
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