U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 29, 2022, a “trio” of efforts, including setting new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expanding premium processing, and working to improve timely access to employment authorization documents (EADs). Reducing Backlogs USCIS is establishing new internal goals to guide backlog reduction efforts and case processing. As part of these efforts, USCIS plans to increase capacity, expand staffing, and improve technology by the end of FY 2023. USCIS said it expects that once these measures are in place, “applicants and petitioners will receive decisions on their cases more quickly.” Expanding Premium Processing The Department of Homeland Security announced a final rule that codifies premium processing fees and adjudication timeframes. In FY 2022, USCIS intends to begin implementing, through a phased approach, premium processing availability for Forms I-539, I-765, and I-140. USCIS said it “will also adhere to the congressional requirement that the expansion of premium processing must not cause an increase in processing times for regular immigration benefit requests.” USCIS plans to begin phased implementation first by expanding premium processing eligibility to Form I-140 filers requesting EB-1 immigrant classification as a multinational executive or manager, or EB-2 immigrant classification as a member of a […]