New Immigration and Naturalization Service "Premium Processing" Program

After years of growing backlogs in the processing of nonimmigrant visa petitions, the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") has announced that it will begin a "premium processing " program on June 1, 2001. The program will initially include all nonimmigrant (temporary) visa petitions, except for H-1B, Trade NAFTA ("TN") and R visas. With H-1B visa petitions suffering from the worst of the backlogs, the INS hopes to include these petitions in the program by the end of the summer.

For a $1,000 fee (in addition to the standard processing fee), the INS will guarantee adjudication of a petition within 15 calendar days of receipt, unless a request for additional information is sent to the petitioner. To meet the goals of the program, the INS is expected to have a separate mailing address for premium processing cases, and to provide a better means of communication with respect to cases in the premium processing system.

For the full story, please view the PDF.