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Premium processing of I-140
- Thread starter compudada
- Start date
Originally posted by compudada
Is Vermont Service Center ever going to introduce premium processing of I-140 applications as they had promised 2 years ago?
Given the current scenario it doesn't look like they would implement the premium I140. The current delay in processing in the VSC is due to premium H1B category. The USCIS VSC doesn't have enough resource to process these premium H1B at the pace of a week.
So if premium 140 is introduced it will clutter the other immigration applications. It will delay them forever. May be 485 would take abt 5 year to reach approval. and family sponsorship will never occur during the lifetime of the applicant.
hth
dyno
Following was posted at "www.immigration-law.com" back in June 2003
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06/21/2003 (Report from New Orleans): Premium Processing of I-140 Not in Sight
There are people in certain occupations who desperately need premium processing of I-140. Most of them are in health care industry such as physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists or some other allied hearth care workers. The nurses are particularly affected by this decision as the nurses are usually coming to the U.S. as an immigrant using so-called Schedule A labor certification waiver rule. Recent delay of I-140 processing at the Service Centers are particularly painful to these health care workers.
One time the INS was almost ready to launch the premium processing services for I-140 petitions, but this was stricken by a lightening from the sky that originated from the report of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice that premium processing services had caused substantial delays in most of the immigration and non-immigrant processings. The INS immediately defended that the delay was caused not by the premium processing services but by the security clearance procedures.
Well, at this point, viability of such defense is very much in doubt at best and the BCIS cannot afford making situation worse. The BCIS estimates that in order to launch premium processing services for I-140, it needs a substantial number of adjudicators exclusively for the I-140 PPS. They are afraid that it may indeed affect the processing times of other cases unless additional funding becomes available for the expansion of PPS. It appears that there is no such sources of additional funding and the BCIS may have to shelve the I-140 PPS idea at least for a while. Sorry to the health care professionals!!
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===========================================
06/21/2003 (Report from New Orleans): Premium Processing of I-140 Not in Sight
There are people in certain occupations who desperately need premium processing of I-140. Most of them are in health care industry such as physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists or some other allied hearth care workers. The nurses are particularly affected by this decision as the nurses are usually coming to the U.S. as an immigrant using so-called Schedule A labor certification waiver rule. Recent delay of I-140 processing at the Service Centers are particularly painful to these health care workers.
One time the INS was almost ready to launch the premium processing services for I-140 petitions, but this was stricken by a lightening from the sky that originated from the report of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice that premium processing services had caused substantial delays in most of the immigration and non-immigrant processings. The INS immediately defended that the delay was caused not by the premium processing services but by the security clearance procedures.
Well, at this point, viability of such defense is very much in doubt at best and the BCIS cannot afford making situation worse. The BCIS estimates that in order to launch premium processing services for I-140, it needs a substantial number of adjudicators exclusively for the I-140 PPS. They are afraid that it may indeed affect the processing times of other cases unless additional funding becomes available for the expansion of PPS. It appears that there is no such sources of additional funding and the BCIS may have to shelve the I-140 PPS idea at least for a while. Sorry to the health care professionals!!
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Hi guys,
Thanks for the insight.
It is so absurd though that VSC thinks premium processing of H1 visas affects the processing of other applications. They are charging $1000 per application for premium processing. Why cann't they invest some of that money to get more adjudicators? They can do the same for I-140. I am sure there are enough applicants who would want premium processing of I-140 applications.
Thanks for the insight.
It is so absurd though that VSC thinks premium processing of H1 visas affects the processing of other applications. They are charging $1000 per application for premium processing. Why cann't they invest some of that money to get more adjudicators? They can do the same for I-140. I am sure there are enough applicants who would want premium processing of I-140 applications.
Here are my thoughts on why there would never have premium processing on I-140.
About 2 years ago or so when there was no AC21 law and you had to have your I-140 and I-485 approved to be able to change your job legally or stay in this country legally. During this time, the approval of I-140 used to be anywhere between 2 weeks to 6 weeks (mostly), and I-485 used to take more than a year to be approved. So the time it used to take for a applicant who has labor certification was around 14 months or more.
Once AC 21 law came into effect, the processing times of I-140 became slowly creped upto 6 months or more. And since applying for I-140 and I-485 concurrently was not allowed, you needed to wait for about 6 months for I-140 approval, then apply for I-485 and wait for another 6 months to be in a safe position.
After this, they approved a law (or whatever), that would allow a person to concurrently apply for I-140 and I-485 once the labor was certified. Once this came into effect, the I-140 approval timings have slowly creped up to 14 months or so.
If you look at the above three scenarios, the time that a person has to wait to be safe once their labor has been certified has not changed much. If they start the premium processing for I-140 applications, then they would be drastically changing the situation by which an applicant can concurrently apply for I-140 and I-485 and be safe in 6 months once they have a certified labor. Why would they want to do that?
So the moral of the story is that we should not except the processing of our IMMIGRATION Related Applications any sooner then they used to be a few years ago.. Always assume that you would have to wait longer than what then your predecessors.
These are my thought only and I would really be happy for the next generation of Immigrants if the situation of this immgration process changes even slightly in their favor.
-Godse
About 2 years ago or so when there was no AC21 law and you had to have your I-140 and I-485 approved to be able to change your job legally or stay in this country legally. During this time, the approval of I-140 used to be anywhere between 2 weeks to 6 weeks (mostly), and I-485 used to take more than a year to be approved. So the time it used to take for a applicant who has labor certification was around 14 months or more.
Once AC 21 law came into effect, the processing times of I-140 became slowly creped upto 6 months or more. And since applying for I-140 and I-485 concurrently was not allowed, you needed to wait for about 6 months for I-140 approval, then apply for I-485 and wait for another 6 months to be in a safe position.
After this, they approved a law (or whatever), that would allow a person to concurrently apply for I-140 and I-485 once the labor was certified. Once this came into effect, the I-140 approval timings have slowly creped up to 14 months or so.
If you look at the above three scenarios, the time that a person has to wait to be safe once their labor has been certified has not changed much. If they start the premium processing for I-140 applications, then they would be drastically changing the situation by which an applicant can concurrently apply for I-140 and I-485 and be safe in 6 months once they have a certified labor. Why would they want to do that?
So the moral of the story is that we should not except the processing of our IMMIGRATION Related Applications any sooner then they used to be a few years ago.. Always assume that you would have to wait longer than what then your predecessors.
These are my thought only and I would really be happy for the next generation of Immigrants if the situation of this immgration process changes even slightly in their favor.
-Godse
I partially agree with Godse. It might create an illusion that the so called 'safe period' for quitting a job remained unchanged.
But when considering the overall time for one to get an approved GC has increased tremendously.
Previously after approval of 140 one has to wait for a period of 1-2 years before filing for 485. So the applicant didn't have an opportunity to get his EAD etc. Considering an average 1 year in labor and 6 months in 140 (in the previous years) and another 2 year to get the 485 current, a person has to wait atleast 3.5 years to just apply for their 485. After that it an agonising one more year to get a GC approved.
But, in the current scenario lets assume a 1 year labor and a modest 1 year 140. If the applicant filed concurrently he would have steered away clear in 2 years compared to the previous 4.5 - 5 years. So the immigration law reform / changes had benefitted the immigrant community. We should give credit to the USCIS where a credit is due.
To compudada's query.
Definitely introducing the premium would generate more money for the USCIS and they could for sure hire new 'adjudicators'. At the current inflow of 140 applications, they require atleast 50 more people for each of the (4) service centers to just process premium 140s. The USCIS in one of the earlier letters had indicated that to hire a new person and to train them it takes atleast 6 months. And the number of 140 petitions filed and the infrastructural difficulties would prevent them from introducing a premium processing for 140. I read that sometime next year the USCIS will review the premium H1B processing. If the economics of it were positive (I pray it should), then they might consider premium processing for other type of applications too.
Just another thought, if the PERM is passed and accepted, there the 140 volume will further increase.
my .02
dyno