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The Department of Homeland Security has sent the White House a proposed rule that would change how long U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has to act on premium processing requests, the paid fast track employers use for H-1B, L-1 and O-1 petitions and Form I-140 green card petitions, and that students use for OPT work permits. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs logged the proposal, titled “Amending the Premium Processing Timeframe” (RIN 1615-AD25), on Oct. 13, but its text is not public, so it is not yet known whether the clocks would get longer, shorter or simply be counted differently.
Nothing changes for filings made today. Still, the timing matters. What an employer buys with premium processing is certainty: a decision, a request for evidence or a refund within a fixed window. DHS’s pending proposal to end deference on worker extensions projects about 6,000 additional requests for evidence a year, and every one of those stops the premium clock until the employer responds.
The clocks now. Under 8 CFR 106.4, USCIS must act within 15 business days on most Form I-129 petitions and on EB-1A, EB-1B, non-waiver EB-2 and EB-3 petitions; within 30 business days on changes of status to F, J or M, dependents’ Form I-539 requests and Form I-765 work permits; and within 45 business days on EB-1C multinational manager petitions and national interest waiver petitions. Since March 1, 2026, the fee is $2,965 for most I-129 and I-140 filings, $1,780 for H-2B, R-1 and I-765 requests, and $2,075 for I-539 requests.
How those days are counted has already changed more than once. In its 2022 rule implementing the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, DHS chose calendar days, reversing a business-day approach in its 2020 fee rule. The regulation now counts business days, which stretches a 15-day guarantee to roughly three calendar weeks. USCIS’s own “How Do I Request Premium Processing?” page and the 2020 edition of the Form I-907 instructions still describe calendar days.
Who would feel it. DHS’s January 2026 premium fee rule estimated about 419,161 premium requests a year tied to I-129 and I-140 filings, based mostly on five-year averages. Students lean on the service too: in fiscal 2024, 66,312 of 294,551 OPT and STEM OPT work permit applications, about 22.5 percent, came with a premium request, and 6,838 of 45,735 changes of status to F, J or M, about 15 percent (both shares are calculations from figures in that rule).
Reading the signals. Two details narrow the possibilities. The regulatory listing marks the rule as not economically significant, meaning it is not expected to have an annual economic effect of $100 million or more, which points to an adjustment rather than an overhaul. And the 2022 rule described the 30- and 45-day periods for the newer categories as maximums set by Congress in the 2020 law, which limits how far DHS can stretch those particular clocks by regulation. The 15-day categories, which cover most H-1B and L-1 work, carry no such description in that rule and are the likelier place for any lengthening, though that stays an open question until the text is released.
White House review can last up to 90 days under Executive Order 12866, after which DHS would publish the proposal and take public comments. Until a final rule takes effect, current timeframes govern.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources: OIRA regulatory review listing, Amending the Premium Processing Timeframe, RIN 1615-AD25 (received Oct. 13, 2026); 8 CFR 106.4, premium processing service (eCFR); DHS final rule, Adjustment to Premium Processing Fees, Jan. 12, 2026; DHS final rule, Implementation of the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, March 30, 2022; DHS proposed rule, Removing Deference to Prior USCIS Determinations of Eligibility, Oct. 14, 2026; USCIS: How Do I Request Premium Processing?
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