U.S. Immigration Alerts

U.S. Immigration Updates- Week of May 22, 2022

USCIS to Implement Premium Processing for Certain Previously Filed EB-1 and EB-2 Form I-140 Petitions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is implementing Premium Processing for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications.

This expansion of Premium Processing only applies to certain previously filed Form I-140 petitions under an E13 multinational executive and manager classification or E21 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver (NIW). Petitioners who wish to request a Premium Processing upgrade must file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service.

The expansion will occur in phases:

· Beginning June 1, 2022, USCIS will accept Form I-907 requests for E13 multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before Jan. 1, 2021.

· Beginning July 1, 2022, USCIS will accept Form I-907 requests for E21 NIW petitions received on or before June 1, 2021, and E13 multinational executive and manager petitions received on or before March 1, 2021.

USCIS will reject Premium Processing requests for these classifications that are filed before their start date of June 1, 2022, or July 1, 2022. USCIS will not accept new (initial) Forms I-140 with a Premium Processing request at this time.

On May 23, 2022, USCIS published a new version of Form I-907, dated 05/31/22. For the month of June, USCIS will accept both the 09/30/20 and the 05/31/22 editions of Form I-907. Starting July 1, USCIS will reject the older 09/30/20 edition of Form I-907.

Source: USCIS Newsroom, May 24, 2022: https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-to-implement-premium-processing-for-certain-previously-filed-eb-1-and-eb-2-form-i-140

National Visa Center Suspends Public Inquiry Telephone Line

Beginning May 23, the National Visa Center (NVC) suspended its public inquiry telephone line. The NVC continues to accept immigrant visa inquiries through its online Public Inquiry Form (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html) if the answer to a question cannot be found on the websites of the NVC or the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC: https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/).

The Department of State (DOS) has stated that the suspension of the public inquiry line will not affect the NVC’s essential functions.

In the case of an emergency, the best way to reach NVC about scheduling an appointment is at NVCexpedite@state.gov. When reaching out to this email address, make sure to include relevant case information and to clearly document the reason for the expedite request. The NVC has noted in the past that using the Public Inquiry Form to submit an expedite request will likely delay the process.

Source: American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Doc. No. 22052431

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