August 28, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the addition of two new classifications to the Premium Processing Service, which allows U.S. businesses to pay a $1,000 Premium Processing fee in exchange for 15-calendar-day processing of their case.

Starting on August 28, USCIS will begin accepting Premium Processing requests for petitions involving one of two employment-based immigration categories within the employment-based “preference”. Those categories involve EB-3 Professionals, (i.e. immigrant workers with bachelor degrees who are members of the professions), and EB-3 Skilled Workers, (i.e. immigrant workers capable of performing skilled labor requiring at least two years of education, training or experience). Employers file for both categories using an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Form I-140). Premium Processing is not available to “other workers” in the EB-3 category for jobs that do not require two years of education, training or experience.

Besides, the USCIS has also reminded that Premium Processing Service is available for the Form I-140 classifications indicated above provided that the case does not involve:

1. A second filing of a Form I-140 petition while an initial Form I-140 remains pending;
2. Labor Certification substitution requests; and
3. Duplicate Labor Certification requests (i.e., cases filed without an original labor certification from the Department of labor)

In addition, USCIS has revised and will release a new Request for Premium Processing Services form (Form I-907), to include expansion of Premium Processing Service to the newly designated classifications. All requests for Premium Processing Service received on August 28, 2006 or later must be filed using the new Form I-907.

Under the Premium Processing Service, USCIS guarantees petitioners that, for a $1,000 processing fee, it will issue either an approval notice, or where appropriate, a notice of intent to deny, a request for evidence or open an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation, within 15 calendar days of receipt. If the petition is not processed within 15 calendar days, USCIS will refund the $1,000 fee and continue to process the request as part of the Premium Processing Service. In addition to faster processing, petitioners who participate in the program may use a dedicated phone number and e-mail address to check on the status of their petition or ask any other questions they may have concerning their petition.