U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last Friday that 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 cases, will be added.  

Starting August 28, USCIS will begin accepting Premium Processing requests for petitions involving two employment-based immigration "categories" within the third employment-based "preference", 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). The Request for Premium Processing Service form (Form I-907) has been revised to include the expansion of Premium Processing Service to the newly designated classifications. Any Premium Processing Service requests for Form I-129 received before August 28, 2006 must use the current Form I-907 with the revision date of April 1, 2006 .  

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. Petitioners who participate in the program may use a dedicated telephone number and email address to check the status of their petition or ask any questions they may have about their petition.  

Information about the expanded Premium Processing Service is available on the USCIS web site at http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/prem_process.htm or by calling the USCIS National Customer Service Center toll free at 1-800-375-5283 .