Premium processing for an EB-1C petition is an optional USCIS service that requires the agency to act on the Form I-140 for a multinational executive or manager within 45 business days. The fee is $2,965 as of 2026, and it is available whether you are filing the I-140 for the first time or upgrading a petition already pending. It speeds up the I-140 decision only. It does not move your priority date, change visa availability, or shorten any later stage of the green card process.1eCFR. 8 CFR 106.4 – Premium Processing Service
What the $2,965 Fee Buys
Once USCIS receives a properly completed Form I-907 at the correct address, it has 45 business days to take one of five actions on the underlying EB-1C petition:
- Approve the I-140.
- Issue a Request for Evidence (RFE).
- Issue a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID).
- Deny the petition.
- Open a fraud investigation.
Any one of these counts as timely action. A denial inside the window is still timely, so it does not trigger a refund. The fee is on top of the base I-140 filing fee and must be paid separately.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing
How an RFE or NOID Affects the Clock
If USCIS issues an RFE or NOID, the 45-business-day clock stops and fully resets. When you submit your response, a new 45-business-day period starts from zero rather than picking up where it left off.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing Add to that the time you spend gathering evidence to respond, and an RFE can push the real timeline well past the 45 days you paid for.
When You Get the Fee Back
If USCIS takes no adjudicative action inside the window, it must refund the $2,965 automatically and keep processing the case under standard timelines. You do not have to ask for the refund.3eCFR. 8 CFR 106.4 – Premium Processing Service The one exception is a fraud investigation: if USCIS opens one, it keeps the fee and is no longer bound by the deadline.
How to File Form I-907
The request goes on Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service. The form asks for the petitioner’s business name, the beneficiary’s full legal name, and the receipt number of the pending I-140 if you are upgrading rather than filing together.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service
Signatures cause a lot of preventable rejections. USCIS requires a handwritten signature from the petitioner or an authorized attorney or accredited representative. Stamped or typed names are rejected, and a missing or invalid signature means USCIS returns the filing and the fee. A photocopy or scan of the original handwritten signature is acceptable.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-907 Instructions If an attorney signs for the employer, a Form G-28 must be included unless one is already on file.
Filing With a New I-140 vs. Upgrading a Pending Case
If the I-907 is going in with a brand-new EB-1C petition, both forms and both payments have to be mailed together as a single package to the designated USCIS service center. You cannot file the I-907 online when it is submitted concurrently with a new I-140.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Forms Available to File Online
If the I-140 is already pending and carries a receipt number beginning with “IOE,” the I-907 can be filed online through the USCIS portal. For petitions that were mailed in and are pending, the I-907 can be filed online or mailed separately to the service center handling the case.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Forms Available to File Online Use a trackable courier when mailing.
Paying the Fee
USCIS overhauled its payment system in late 2025 and no longer accepts personal checks, business checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks for paper-filed forms. For paper filings, payment must be made electronically: by credit or debit card using Form G-1450, or by ACH debit using Form G-1650.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Modernize Fee Payments with Electronic Funds Only cards issued by a U.S. bank are accepted.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Authorization for Credit Card Transactions Online filers pay through the USCIS portal.
Who Can Use It
Premium processing is available for any I-140 filed under the EB-1C multinational executive or manager category. The service does not change the substantive standard USCIS applies. The petitioning U.S. employer still has to have been doing business for at least one year, hold a qualifying corporate relationship with the foreign entity (parent, subsidiary, affiliate, or branch), and show that the beneficiary worked abroad for that related entity in a managerial or executive role for at least one of the three years before filing and is coming to the United States to continue in a managerial or executive capacity.9GovInfo. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 2, Part L, Chapter 6 – Key Concepts Paying the premium fee does not lower those bars; a weak petition gets a faster denial, not a friendlier review.
What Premium Processing Does Not Cover
The most common misunderstanding is that the $2,965 accelerates the green card itself. It does not. The 45-business-day commitment applies only to the I-140 adjudication.
It has no effect on visa availability or your priority date. You still wait for a visa number to become current in the monthly Visa Bulletin before the case can move forward.
It does not speed up the next stage. After I-140 approval, you either file Form I-485 to adjust status inside the United States or go through consular processing abroad. I-485 processing currently runs from many months to over two years depending on service center and case complexity, and that timeline is independent of the premium window.
Concurrent filing is possible when the priority date is current at the time you file the I-140. Combining the two applications triggers eligibility for an Employment Authorization Document and Advance Parole while the I-485 is pending, but the I-485 itself still proceeds on its own schedule. Premium processing accelerates only the I-140 decision inside that package.
Dependents are on their own clocks too. A spouse or child with a pending change-of-status or work authorization filing is not covered by the I-907 you filed for the principal’s I-140. Some of those forms are independently eligible for premium processing, but each one needs its own I-907 and its own fee.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing