U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will resume premium processing for all remaining fiscal year (FY) 2020 H-1B lottery petitions, starting on June 10, 2019. Employers may file a request for premium processing conversion with the USCIS service center that is processing their petition.
USCIS noted that it is offering premium processing in a two-phased approach during this year’s cap season “to best manage premium processing requests without fully suspending it.
- The first phase, which started on May 20, 2019, included H-1B lottery petitions requesting a change of status, and the second phase includes all other H-1B lottery petitions. Premium processing for H-1B petitions that are exempt from the cap, such as extension-of-stay requests, remains available.
Also starting on June 10 and continuing through the end of June 24, USCIS will use regular mail rather than pre-paid mailers to send out final notices for premium processing for H-1B lottery petitions not requesting a change of status. USCIS said it will resume using pre-paid mailers for final notices when provided by petitioners “when operationally feasible.”
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