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Starting April 3 2017, a well known program for H-1B visa applicants will be temporarily suspended. So called “Premium processing”, this program used to expedite a visa processing time for skilled workers when extra $1,225 filing fee was paid. It was decision made by U.S. immigration authorities and still not clear how long the new rule will be in place, or even it would be permanent decision.

While it sounds very frustrating for both the job seekers and the company that would be willing to hire H-1B visa applicants and possibly considering to extend job offer, it also makes sense that the intention behind of this temporary suspension was to clear the backlog that had been piled up for years. Once this backlog is cleared, then one could hope that a faster processing time might be guaranteed, along with resume of expedite processing.

Among others, many tech companies will be affected by this decision as they mostly depend on highly skilled tech workers due to cutting edge technology competition on the market. They have always been looking for acquiring top notch technicians around the globe and even with fresh graduate student from the college.

On the other hands, the H-1B visa applicants are also becoming limbo status while they have to wait until the decision is made whether they have already received a job offer or not. Usually companies will ask for the immigration status, visa extension processing time and then decide an offer letter. If no one knows what would happen for the next 12 months, then it could be very possible that the opportunity might go to the next available workers in United States who won’t have to clear this visa status.

According to immigration lawyers advice, it is still to early to expect anything and the applicants should not be discouraged to apply for the expedited visa application program as they are still some exceptional cases where they can use this program such as emergency situation – company’s financial loss or non-profit organization’s needs.

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This entry was posted by admin on Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Immigration Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.