U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently announced a limited expansion of expedited processing for critical permanent residence categories that are utilized by highly skilled foreign nationals. In addition, USCIS has indicated a commitment to provide faster overall processing times for cases that are not eligible for expedited processing. USCIS has committed to increasing capacity, enhancing its technology framework, and expanding staffing in the hopes of making needed improvements to case-processing times over the next several months. This is a welcome development as the USCIS backlog has surged from 5.7 million applications at the end of FY2019, to approximately 9.5 million cases that currently await review. While the Biden administration did not create the backlog, this announcement is a hopeful sign that the administration will begin to seriously address these issues, as it settles into its second year in office.

When expedited processing will become available is not entirely clear, however, USCIS is expected to open this important door before the end of the government's fiscal year in September. Currently, senior-level executives and managers applying in the EB-1(C) multi-national manager category, along with (for example) key scientists and researchers whose cases fall within the National Interest Waiver category, face prolonged backlogs that can extend to over two years before their cases are adjudicated by USCIS. Once implemented, USCIS will now commit to adjudication within 45 days for an additional government filing fee of $2,500. USCIS is also funded through filing fees and does not rely upon congressional appropriations, thus the additional filing fees should allow the agency the opportunity to raise the revenue required to produce more reasonable processing times.