Premium Processing Service refers to an optional premium service offered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to employers filing Form I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker) or Form I-140 (Petition for an Immigrant Worker). To avail of the service, the employer needs to file Form I-907 and include a fee that (as of 2015) is $1225.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website, USCIS guarantees 15 calendar day processing to those petitioners or applicants who choose to use this service or USCIS will refund the Premium Processing Service fee. If the fee is refunded, the relating case will continue to receive expedited processing.^[1] The time begins from the receipt of Form I-907 and the associated fee. Form I-907 may be filed along with Form I-129, or electronically as a standalone form for a previously filed Form I-129.^[2]

When the USCIS says it will process the application within 15 days, this does not mean that a final decision about the application will be reached within that timeframe. Rather, the USCIS promises one of the following four responses:^[1][5]

1. Approval Notice: Note that this approval notice may not include the actual authorization document sought.
2. Request For Evidence (RFE): The USCIS asks the applicant to submit additional evidence or information.
3. Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID)
4. Commencing an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation.

If the USCIS issues a RFE or NOID, the applicant must file a timely response. The USCIS has an additional 15 days to process the application after receiving the applicant's response. Form I-907 need not be filed again, and the premium processing fee need not be paid again.

At present, the Premium Processing Service is available for all visa classes for which Forms I-129 and I-140 can be used, with the following exceptions:^[1]

• For Form I-129: The H-2B visa classification was temporarily suspended on March 6, 2015. Also, the Premium Processing Service is available to R-1 visa applicants only if the petitioner has passed an on-site inspection.
• For Form I-140: The EB-1 (Multinational Manager or Executive category) and EB-2 (National Interest Waiver) categories. The Premium Processing Service is not yet available for these categories.

Applying for the Premium Processing Service does not provide any preferential treatment in the lottery for cap-subject visas such as the H-1B visa, H-2B visa, or H-3 visa.^[1][2][6][7]

The Premium Processing Service began as a service with a $1000 fee for Form I-129 petition categories in 2001. It was activated for the majority of categories on June 1, and for the rest on July 30.^[1] The fee was introduced and collected by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the predecessor to the USCIS, and its introduction was a purely administrative decision by the INS rather than the result of any immigration legislation.^[8]

On May 23, 2006, the USCIS announced that it would roll out the Premium Processing Service for some Form I-140 visa categories.^[9] The rollout continued through 2006. Premium Processing was reinstated for Form I-140 petitions in 2009.^[1]

In November 2010, the Premium Processing Service fee was hiked from $1000 to $1225 as part of a general change to the fee schedule for USCIS forms. The change would become effective in 2011.^[10]

In March 2013, USCIS announced that it would treat April 15 as the start date (the date from which to count down the 15 days) for cap-subject H-1B petitions received between April 1 and April 14 of that year.^[11]

Since applying for Premium Processing does not provide any preferential treatment to applicants,^[1][2][6] commentators have claimed that the main reason companies are willing to pay these fees is because the faster turnarounds allow them and their prospective employees to plan next steps more effectively. This is particularly important in cases of requests for evidence or notices of intent to deny, because of the further iterations needed in order to get approved.^[7]

In June 2001, shortly after the introduction of the Premium Processing Service by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (the predecessor to USCIS), Gary Endelman wrote an article in Immigration Daily critical of the Premium Processing Service. He argued that the very fact that people were willing to pay the fee for 15-day processing times highlighted severe inefficiencies and unfunded mandates on the INS, which should not take much longer to process applications in any case. He sugested that rather than allowing the INS to treat these fees as cash cows, the United States legislature should identify clearer, more limited mandates for the agency along with a plan to fund them.^[8] This concern was partly resolved with the restructuring of the INS into United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (that is funded almost entirely by user fees)^[12] and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handles immigration enforcement and is directly funded by Congress.

On his personal blog The Asylumist, lawyer Jason Dzubow has mooted the idea of extending premium processing to asylum applications, so that the influx of funds could help the USCIS spend more resources to clear a huge backlog of cases.^[13]

There have also been repeated requests to the USCIS to enable premium processing for EB-5 visa (investor visa) applications.^[14] The USCIS itself came up with proposals in August 2011 that would allow Premium Processing Service requests for EB-5 investor applications (made on Form I-526) for projects that were fully developed and ready to go.^[15] However, as of April 2015, the Premium Processing Service is still restricted only to Form I-129 and Form I-140 petitions.^{[1][2][14][16]}