Visa Premium Processing for R-1 Religious Worker Visa Applications Suspended Again
On January 4, 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that its suspension of premium processing services for religious worker (R-1) visa petitions will be extended again--until July 8, 2008.
With “premium processing” the USCIS provides much faster processing of certain employment-based petitions and it guarantees that it will make a decision on those petitions within a 15-calendar day processing time. In these matters, that means that once the R-1 application is received, the USCIS, if premium processing is requested and paid for, will decide the case within 15 calendar days.
The USCIS blames the “complexities” involved in these nonimmigrant religious worker petitions for its inability to ensure premium processing service within 15 calendar days.
