Form I-140

Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker is a form submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) by a prospective employer to petition an alien to work in the US on a permanent basis.

In many cases (see table above), part of the initial evidence is a Permanent Labor Certification, which establishes, among other things, that there are insufficient workers in the US to fill the position the alien employee plans to take.

[4] The fee for filing Form I-140 is $715, and must be payable in US currency to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The Premium Processing Service promises an initial review from the USCIS within 15 calendar days of receipt of the form, after which time it may approve, deny, or issue a Request For Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny.

[10] Premium Processing does not guarantee a final adjudication; it only provides a time limit for initial review of the petition.

In other words, the 15 calendar day guarantee is only for the initial review of the petition, which may result in approval, denial, or the issuing of a Request For Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny.

In other words, if there is no visa number availability wait time, either because the category is uncapped or the caps are nowhere near being met, then Premium Processing is advantageous.

Q 67 and Section 106 of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) includes special provisions in case of lengthy adjudications.

In particular, it allows extensions by one year at a time of the H-1B status for people with long-pending Form I-140 petitions (pending for at least 365 days).

However, there is an ambiguity in cases where an extension is obtained but subsequently the Form I-140 petition is denied.

Under one of the provisions of the LIFE Act, the USCIS would overlook unlawful entry and unlawful presence when considering some Adjustment of Status applications for people whose Form I-140 had been filed by April 30, 2001 (with a number of additional caveats).

As of February 1, 2016, the processing times for administrative appeals for all categories of Form I-140 is 6 months or less.

If the consular office finds such evidence, he or she returns the petition to USCIS along with the reasons the petition appears fraudulent, and issues a Section 221(g) quasi-refusal to the applicant (note that this is relevant to cases 2 and 3, and not to case 1 where the beneficiary is already in the United States).

When reapplying, all previously submitted evidence must be resubmitted, and filing fee must be paid again.

[19] Appeals have historically taken up to 35 months to be adjudicated; for this reason law resources often recommend reapplying.