The premium processing facility provides expedited processing of the H-1B application.
The US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday that it has resumed the premium processing of H-1B visas for medical doctors under the Conrad 30 Waiver program.
The USCIS in March had announced that it has temporarily stopped the processing of premium processing of H-1B visa until further notice.
The premium processing facility provides expedited processing of the H-1B application and USCIS guarantees 15 calendar-day processing. By availing the premium processing service of USCIS, applicants don’t have to wait for a longer period if they are on a critical project.
The official USCIS website has now put up an alert that said, “Starting June 26, 2017, USCIS will resume premium processing for H-1B petitions filed for medical doctors under the Conrad 30 Waiver program, as well as Interested Government Agency (IGA) waivers.â€
The Conrad 30 Waiver program allows J-1 medical doctors to apply for a waiver of the 2-year residence requirement upon completion of the J-1 exchange visitor program. It allows certain medical doctors to stay in the United States on a temporary visa after completing their medical training to work in rural and urban areas that have a shortage of physicians.
For the premium processing of H-1B, an applicant has to pay an additional cost of $1,225. Premium processing remains temporarily suspended for all other H-1B petitions.
Announcing that it is temporarily suspending the premium processing for six months, USCIS said that the agency was forced to take such a move as there was an unprecedented surge in the number of premium processing applications.
“This program improves health care access for Americans living in underserved areas, and we are pleased to resume premium processing for these petitions,†said USCIS Acting Director James McCament.
USCIS also announced that it will reject any Form I-907 filed for those petitions, and if the petitioner submitted one check combining the Form I-907 and Form I 129 fees, USCIS will have to reject both forms.