BUDGET BILL INCLUDES AUTHORIZATION OF PREMIUM PROCESSING FEE FOR BUSINESS IMMIGRATION APPLICATIONS
While most people are aware of the efforts to
include immigration relief measures in the budget, a lesser-known provision
could have an equally significant impact on business immigration.
Also included in the budget is authorization for the INS to charge a
$1000 premium processing fee for employment-based applications.
The fee will be used to cover the costs of providing the expedited
processing, and to make improvements in the adjudications infrastructure.
The budget bill does not provide a time frame within which the
application must be processed if the premium fee is paid, but in discussions the
INS has suggested that within 15 days it will either approve an application,
deny it, or issue a request for additional evidence.
Many pro-immigration advocates are concerned that the INS will not stick to the
suggested timetable and that processing in cases where the premium fee has not
been paid with actually slow down. Others
are hopeful that the infusion of new funding will help to improve processing
times for everyone.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is opposed to the premium fee.
AILA gives three primary concerns about it.
First, by speeding up processing of certain application, it is quite
likely that other applications will be negatively impacted.
Second, there is some question as to how the fee process would be
implemented in H-1B cases, which are by law required to be adjudicated in the
order in which they are received by the INS.
Third, there is the possibility that the INS would use frivolous requests
for additional evidence to say that it has met the time limit for adjudication.
While business groups generally support the idea of a premium fee, and if
nothing else are gratified by the INS’s understanding that the agency’s
processing problems often cause problems for business petitioners, there is some
skepticism about it. The INS has
made promises in the past about providing fast processing, promises that it was
never able to keep. While the INS
could say that it will process premium cases within 15 days, there is no
enforcement mechanism. Also,
routine INS procedures such as audits would delay processing.
SISKIND'S IMMIGRATION BULLETIN