Firms that bring high-skilled workers, such as software engineers, into the US will no longer be able to pay to have their petitions processed faster under ‘premium processing’, with US Citizenship and Immigration Services having issued a temporary suspension of the option.
The US visas were extensively used by technology companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Even more restrictions on the H-1B US visa program are reportedly being considered by President Donald Trump, to deal with concerns that domestic technology workers are seeing employment taken away from them and given to immigrants from overseas by the program.
The decision to suspend the premium processing option was announced on Friday. It means that workers applying for H-1B US visas and the firms sponsoring them will now be forced to wait between two to six months before getting answers to their petitions. Expedited processing of as little as 15 days for an extra fee of $1225 was offered under the premium processing option.
The suspension will come into force on 3 April and could last up to six months. The agency says that the suspension will help them cut down on processing times for H-1B US visas, although expedited processing can still be requested by H-1B US visa petitioners in exceptional circumstances. The larger overhaul suggested by Trump would force firms to try to hire US workers first, with priority for foreign workers given to those on the highest salaries, opening more entry-level jobs to Americans.