USCIS Expands Premium Processing Services

The following 3 actions have been announced by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS):

Reducing backlogs: USCIS has implemented new internal “cycle time goals” to impact how long it takes them to process cases. The metric “Cycle times” measures how many months’ worth of cases is pending for a particular form type. As cycle times improve, the overall processing time to provide a response to applications should also improve and decisions be made more quickly. USCIS intend to achieve these goals by the end of the financial year 2023.

Expansion of Premium Processing Service: The implementation of the expanded premium processing will be phased in over a 3-year period, beginning this year. By the end of this fiscal year (September 2022) the Premium Processing eligibility should be expanded to Form I-140 applicants in the EB-1 Multinational Manager and EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) categories, Form I-539 applications to change to F, J, or M nonimmigrant status, and Form I-765 applications for F-1 OPT and J exchange visitor employment authorization.

Access to EADs: USCIS has provided an automatic 180-day extension to the validity period of certain EADs in order to work towards ensuring individuals do not lose their work authorization while their applications are processing. Further update on the EAD adjudication process is expected from USCIS in the coming days.

For further information on immigration in the US, please contact the Sterling Lexicon immigration team.