Congress allowed US Citizenship and Immigration Services to raise the fee for premium processing and expand it to cover new immigration categories. This was part of the HR 8337 appropriations bill to fund the government passed and signed into law in September 2020.
The new legislation will be applicable to employment based immigrant petitions and any other application that USCIS deems appropriate for premium processing. For immigration applications eligible for premium processing before August 1, 2020 the new fee for premium processing will be $2,500 except for H2B and R categories which will be $1,500.
New areas for premium processing under these rules are
EB-1 and members of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a National Interest Waiver under EB-2
Applicants changing status to the F, J or M categories
Foreign nationals seeking to change status to be classified as a dependent in E, H, L, O, P or R categories, or to extend such status
Employment authorization
https://www.aila.org/infonet/hr-8337-continuing-appropriations-act-2021
Comments