As a part of its efforts in clearing the backlog, the US has extended the temporary suspension of premium processing of H1-B visas. The H1-B visas are highly popular among Indian IT professionals.
Premium processing reduces the processing time from an average of six months to 15 days for a fee of $1,225.
The suspension, announced on Tuesday by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is expected to last until February 2019 next year. Under the premium processing, the USCIS has to respond within 15 days to the H-1B visa petitions submitted to it.
The USCIS said it is extending the temporary suspension of premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions and, beginning September 11, will be expanding this temporary suspension to include certain additional H-1B petitions.
According to the USCIS, between 2007 and 2017, it received the maximum number of 2.2 million H-1B petitions from high-skilled Indians.
India was followed by China with 301,000 H-1B petitions during the same period.
As an H-1B non-immigrant, the applicant may be admitted for a period of up to three years. The time period may be extended, but generally cannot go beyond a total of six years. (PTI)