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ARTICLE · 03 NOVEMBER 2021

Market Intelligence Thought Leadership Award Winner

Expansion Of Premium Processing Availability With Increased Fees ("Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act")

Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, PC
Explore more from Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, PC

In a dramatic action, the U.S. Congress on September 30, 2020 took action to enable USCIS to stabilize its budget, precluding USCIS from following through on its threat to furlough...

United StatesImmigration
Eli Maroko
Eli Maroko
Kreuza L. Gjezi
Kreuza L. Gjezi
Ilene Zaitouna
Ilene Zaitouna

In a dramatic action, the U.S. Congress on September 30, 2020 took action to enable USCIS to stabilize its budget, precluding USCIS from following through on its threat to furlough a large portion of its workforce, and expanded the accelerated processing times available under its Premium Processing Program to a wide variety of additional immigration categories.  What follows is a summary of the myriad provisions of this new legislation.

Analysis

The new Act expands the availability of premium processing beyond the employment-based petitions to which it has otherwise been limited; it also expands premium processing to new categories of employment-based non-immigrant petitions.

The Act also accelerates the processing of applications filed by spouses and children of employment-based non-immigrants when filed in association with the principal worker's petition (note that these I-539 applications, until now, had been separated from the premium processed petitions

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