USCIS announced today that it will change its policy regarding Premium Processing of accepting Cap-Subject H-1B petitions this year.

USCIS announced that it expects that the 65,000 H-1B petition cap and the 20,000 H-1B Master’s degree petition cap may be filled between April 1st and April 5th of this year. Due to the expected influx of petitions, USCIS has changed its premium processing policy from previous years. While in previous years, a premium processing H-1B cap petition could be filed April 1st and adjudicated by April 15th, this year USCIS will not begin counting the 15-day premium processing period until April 15th. Thus, petitions filed April 1st for premium processing will not be adjudicated by April 15th, but instead may be adjudicated by April 30th.

USCIS indicated that requests for premium processing filed on Form I-907 may still be filed concurrently with the H-1B petitions beginning April 1st, however, the 15-day Premium Processing period for these petitions will not commence until April 15th.