Premium Processing Fee Increase Effective Oct. 19, 2020
Changes from USCIS continue at a rapid pace and without adequate warning. Today, USCIS announced that the increase in premium processing fee (as required by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, Pub. L. No. 116-159) signed into law on Oct. 1st will take effect on Oct. 19th.
The increase results in the premium processing fee changing from $1,440 to $2,500. As a result of today’s announcement, any premium processing request postmarked on or after Oct. 19th must include the new fee amount. The increase from $1,440 to $2,500 is not insignificant and some employers will likely reconsider the frequency of their use of this optional service. Please reach out to your ILG attorney if you wish to discuss this further.
The new law also allows USCIS to expand premium processing to additional case types. See table below. However, USCIS has yet to begin premium processing service for the newly added case types or announce when premium processing will begin for them.
|
New Premium Processing Case Types |
Maximum Fee Permitted |
Maximum Processing Timeline |
|
EB-1 – Multinational Executives and Managers EB-2 – National Interest Waiver Cases |
$2,500 |
45 days |
|
Change of Status to: F, J, and M |
$1,750 |
30 days |
|
Change of Status to/Extensions of Status for Dependents Seeking: E, H, L, O, P, or R |
$1,750 |
30 days |
|
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) |
$1,500 |
30 days |