The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) department has announced a number of new measures. These are designed to remove the backlog that has been delaying immigration applications. The new measures will be of interest to you if you are planning to live and work in the state of New Jersey.
Premium processing will soon be expanded
One of the most crucial measures that the USCIS is adopting to streamline immigration will be to expand its premium processing program. This is a measure that is designed to allow certain immigrants to pay a standardized fee of $2,500. The money will be put to a new initiative that allows them to be the subject of a rapidly expedited review of their case.
This new ruling regarding premium processing is set to take full effect within the next 60 days. The idea is to expand the new expedited rate of processing to a select number of green card applications based on employment. It will also be applied to all work permit petitions that are currently included in the queue.
Premium processing can streamline immigration backlogs
Expedited processing will also be available for those who are seeking temporary immigration status extension requests. This new measure will permit applicants to pay the standard system fee of $2,500. Doing so will give them the privilege of having their cases adjudicated within a period of 45 days.
The point of this measure is to reduce the extreme backlog of cases that the USCIS is currently dealing with. Fixing the fee for expediting each case at a level of $2,500 will also help the system avoid financial issues. The program is designed to expand on a gradual level in order to allow for a steady rise in the amount of processing.