ARTICLE · 27 MARCH 2019

USCIS Announces Staggered Premium Processing For FY 2020 Cap Cases

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart

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Premium processing for all other cap-subject H-1B petitions will not begin until at least June of 2019.

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that premium processing will be available for the H-1B cap filing season for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. The FY 2020 cap filing season will begin on April 1, 2019. USCIS will use a staggered approach to premium processing which will be implemented as follows:

Phase One: Requests for Changes of Status

Beginning on April 1, 2019, H-1B petitioners applying for a change of visa status (e.g., F-1 to H-1B) may file a request for premium processing concurrently with the H-1B petition.
USCIS will not begin processing premium for these requests immediately. Instead, it has allowed itself until May 20, 2019, to begin premium processing for change of status petitions. USCIS will notify the public before premium processing for these petitions officially begins.

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