On May 18, 2022, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) leadership held a virtual engagement addressing backlog reduction and processing timelines. USCIS highlighted some of the efforts currently underway to speed up processing for most immigration benefits. These efforts include:

• Eliminating in-person interviews for permanent residence applications whenever possible.
• Using existing biometric records.
• Introducing expedited processing (premium processing) for additional immigration benefits.
• Reducing the adjudication cycle time for all immigration benefits.
• Providing more accurate processing timelines on the USCIS website.
• Hiring and training more adjudicators.

As a positive sign, on May 24, 2022, USCIS announced an initial expansion of premium processing for permanent resident petitions filed on behalf of multinational executives or managers (E1-3) and professionals seeking a national interest waiver (E2-1 or NIW). Specifically, on June 1, 2022, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for multinational executive or manager petitions filed on or before January 1, 2021. On July 1, 2022, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for national interest waivers petitions filed on or before June 1, 2021, and multinational executive or manager petitions filed on or before March 1, 2021.

We will continue monitoring the government’s backlog reduction efforts. In the interim, please contact your Parker Poe attorney to discuss whether pending cases are eligible for the initial premium processing expansion phase.