Covid 19: USCIS Services Changes & Closures
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has suspended all in-person services both in-country and at its field offices, asylum offices and Application Support Centers (ASCs). This suspension of services will be effective until at least April 1. USCIS will continue to provide limited emergency services.
USCIS field offices have sent notices to applicants and petitioners with scheduled appointments and naturalization ceremonies impacted by the closures.
UK-based Consulates
USCIS has closed all offices to the public, effective March 18 until at least April 1. The US Embassy in London and Consulates General in Edinburgh and Belfast also confirmed that all routine consular services have been suspended. US Consulates in Germany and France have also cancelled all routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments until further notice.
Other U.S. consulates, including the US consulate in Toronto, are cancelling routine nonimmigrant visa appointments but not immigrant visa appointments.
Premium processing temporarily halted
In addition, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced suspension of all premium processing until further notice.
Effective March 20 2020, USCIS will not accept any new requests for premium processing. USCIS will process any petition with a previously accepted Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, in accordance with the premium processing service criteria. Pre-paid envelopes will not be used to send notices, only batch-printed notices will be sent.
Petitioners who have already filed Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, or Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers premium processing petitions that do not receive action within 15 calendar days will receive a $1,440 premium fee refund.
USCIS will reject the I-907 and return the $1,440 filing fee for all petitions requesting premium processing that were mailed before March 20 but not yet accepted.
This temporary suspension includes petitions filed for the following categories:
I-129: E-1, E-2, H-1B, H-2B, H-3, L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1, R-1, TN-1 and TN-2.
I-140: EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3.
Travel advice
NNU Immigration is actively monitoring the impact of COVID-19 and coronavirus-related issues on US immigration policy and applications.
As the situation continues to develop on a daily basis, please contact our US immigration specialists for the latest advice for your specific circumstances.
Last updated: March 24, 2020
Author
Founder & Principal Attorney Nita Nicole Upadhye is a recognized leader in the field of US business immigration law, (The Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, Who's Who Legal and AILA) and an experienced and trusted advisor to large multinational corporates through to SMEs. She provides strategic immigration advice and specialist application support to corporations and professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, artists, actors and athletes from across the globe to meet their US-bound talent mobility needs.
Nita is an active public speaker, thought leader, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals.
