A suspension of premium processing of all H-1B petitions has been announced by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) which are subject to annual caps. The federal agency also announced that petitions for H1-B visa will be accepted from April 2 onwards, PTI reported. H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that is popular among IT professionals from India and allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. US technology companies hires thousands of IT professionals from India and China each year via H1-B visa route. This filing process is for the fiscal year 2019 that starts October 1 this year.
Suspension of premium processing
It is expected that the suspension of premium processing of H-1B petitions which are subject to yearly caps will last until September 10 this year. The requests for premium processing will continue during this time which are not subject to the FY19 cap, PTI said citing USCIS. The agency also said that public will be notified about updates on premium processing. A petitioner may submit a request to expedite a fiscal year 2019 cap if it meets the expedited criteria eve though premium processing is suspended.
USCIS on temporary suspension
The temporary suspension will help it to cut down on total H-1B processing time and help it to clear long-pending petitions, which were currently unattended due to a high volume of incoming petitions and the substantial hike in premium processing requests during the last few years. A non-immigrant H-1B visa applicant may be admitted for a period of up to three years. The time period can’t be extended beyond six years barring a few exceptions. Each fiscal there is a limit cap of 65,000 visas. There is an exemption from the cap to the first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master’s degree or above.