Yesterday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced start dates for premium processing of fiscal year (FY) 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions. USCIS will review premium processing requests in two phases. The first phase will process cap-subject petitions that request a change of status and the second phase will include all other FY 2020 cap-subject petitions.
Starting on April 1, petitioners requesting a change of status may request premium processing by concurrently filing the Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, along with their cap-subject H-1B petition. USCIS will conduct the lottery and will begin processing these selected petitions no later than May 20, 2019. The public will be notified once premium processing begins for these petitions.
USCIS estimates that premium processing for all other FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions will not start until June 2019. Premium processing requests for these petitions should not be filed concurrently with the initial H-1B petition. These petitioners must wait until the USCIS announcement allowing for petitions in this category to request premium processing.