Seyfarth Synopsis: On September 18, 2017,
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that
effective immediately it would resume premium processing for H-1B
petitions filed subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 cap.
USCIS temporarily suspended premium processing of all H-1B
petitions on April 1, 2017 with the stated goal of addressing
significant backlogs in case processing. Over the last few
months, the agency incrementally reinstated premium processing
service for lower-volume filings including certain H-1B petitions
that are not subject to the H-1B cap as well as H-1B petitions
filed on behalf of physicians under the Conrad 30 waiver
program. On September 18, 2017, the agency reinstated and
will immediately accept premium processing requests for pending
H-1B petitions that were filed under the Fiscal Year 2018
cap. This includes H-1B petitions filed under the annual
quota of 20,000 U.S. Master's degree petitions as well as those
filed under the