Update on Premium Processing for FY 2020 Cap Subject H1B Petitions Requesting COS

As we discussed in a separate post [see article], the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin premium processing for cap-subject H1B petitioners requesting a change of status on their Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker on May 20, 2019 [PDF version]. The FY 2020 H1B cap filing season began on April 1, 2019. H1B petitioners requesting a change of status may file the Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing service, concurrently with their cap-subject H1B petitions for change of status. Petitioners who do not file the Form I-907 concurrently will have to wait until May 20, 2019, to request a change of status. The USCIS reiterated that premium processing for all other FY 2020 cap-subject H1B petitions will not begin until June 2019 at the earliest.

The USCIS also announced that starting on May 20 and running through June 3, it will “not use pre-paid mailers to send out final notices for premium processing for FY 2020 cap-subject H1B petitions requesting change of status.” For that period, the USCIS will use regular mail instead. The USCIS's reasoning is this is required “due to resource limitations…” It suggested that using pre-paid mailers is a more time consuming process that “may actually delay the issuance of an approval notice, compared to the standard process or otherwise negatively affect [its] ability to timely process premium processing petitions.” The USCIS anticipates resuming the use of pre-paid mailers after June 3, 2019. The USCIS may implement a similar suspension on the use of pre-paid mailers when premium processing resumes for all other cap-subject H1B petitions.

We discuss premium processing requests for Form I-129 petitions generally in a separate article [see article]. To learn about H1B petitions and other types of work visas, please see our website's sections on work visas [see category] and AC21 [see category].