USCIS Premium Processing Fee Increase

Last week we alerted you to a series of changes impacting H-1B and permanent resident (PERM) sponsorship. Lawsuits have been filed related to those changes but we do not yet know if there will be judicial relief. We are seeing prevailing wage determinations that would obligate offering a higher wage to the H-1B employee, though. If the case is not urgent, you may wish to hold any prevailing wage requests for a couple of weeks to see if there is any judicial relief. However, related to timing, we would advise that LCAs be requested early enough so that H-1B petitions may be filed prior to December 7 when the definition of “specialty occupation” is due to change.

At this time, we have one additional update to share that will effect CMU’s business practices.

On Friday, October 16, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an increase in the fees for the premium processing service. This fee increase is effective today, October 19. As many of you are aware, this service allows petitioners to pay an additional filing fee to expedite the adjudication process. The fee increase is listed as below:

• Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing
  • Former fee: $1,440
  • New fee: $2,500

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Linda at lgentile@andrew.cmu.edu.

Sincerely,
OIE Staff