Premium
Processing Service
On June 1,
2001, the INS began “Premium Processing Service” for petitions filed for
L-1, O-1, O-2, E-1, E-2, H-2A, H-2B, H-3, P-1, and P-3 status.
Premium Processing Service will be expanded to include H-1B petitions
starting July 30, 2001.
A petition filed using the Premium Processing Service will be processed in 15 days for an additional fee of $1,000. If it is not, the INS will refund the $1,000 fee (and will continue to process the case with the other Premium Processing cases). Also, it will be possible to contact the INS regarding Premium Processing cases, using a special telephone number reserved only for Premium Processing petitioners.
This may be a case where the exception
will swallow the rule, with most new H-1B cases filed using Premium Processing
Service. For most employers, it
will be worth an additional $1,000 to avoid the normal H-1B processing times,
which in the past few years have ranged between two and five months.
Unlike the $1,000 training fee now
required for most H-1B petitions, the Premium Processing fee does not have to be
paid by the employer, but may be paid by the employee as well.
As you can imagine, there has been
substantial criticism of the Premium Processing Service, which appears to be a
bribe to compel the INS to do what it is supposed to do anyway.
(For example, the INS is required
by law to process L-1 petitions in less than 31 days, but it rarely complies
with that requirement.) Also the
amount of the fee seems to be excessive, and way out of proportion with the
actual cost of processing the petition.
However, for now Premium Processing Service offers a welcome option for bypassing INS logjams. Generally there is no need to apply for Premium Processing if the employee was previously granted H-1B status, because under current law (AC 21) [CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO THE FULL TEXT OF AC 21] the employee may begin employment as soon as the INS receives a petition seeking approval to change H-1B employers. However, an H-1B employee whose current visa will expire soon may wish to apply for Premium Processing if he or she has plans to travel abroad.