United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin premium processing for cap subjected H-1B petitions on April 27, 2015, including petitions for individuals with advanced degree. Last month on March 12, 2015, USCIS released an announcement that in anticipation of a historically high volume of applications, it would temporarily adjust its premium processing. USCIS expected the possibility that the H-1B cap would be met within the first 5 business days.

For certain employment based petitions, USCIS guarantees a 15 day processing time. This means that your petition will be processed first, once it is selected in the lottery.

For H-1B petitions that are not subjected to the cap and any other visa classifications, USCIS will begin the 15 day processing period on the date of receiving the request. Premium processing period for cap subjected H-1B petitions will begin on April 27, 2015, irrespective of the receipt date mentioned on the Form I-797, Notice of Action. This means any application that is selected in the lottery and has a premium fee attached to it should ideally be processed starting May 15 (fifteen workdays since April 27).