(a) General. A person submitting a request to USCIS may request 15 business-day processing of certain employment-based immigration benefit requests.

(b) Submitting a request. A request must be submitted on the form prescribed by USCIS and prepared and submitted in accordance with the form instructions. If the request for premium processing is submitted together with the underlying benefit request, all required fees in the correct amount must be paid.

(c) Fee amount. The fee amount will be prescribed in the form instructions and:

(1) Must be paid in addition to, and in a separate remittance from, other filing fees.

(2) May be adjusted once per year by notice in the Federal Register based on the amount of inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since the fee was set by law at $1,000 on June 1, 2001.

(d) 15-day limitation. USCIS will refund the premium processing service fee, but continue to process the case if:

(1) USCIS does not issue a notice of any adjudicative action by the end of the 15th business day from the date USCIS accepted a properly filed request for premium processing for an eligible employment-based immigration benefit request, including all required fees. The adjudicative action is evidenced by the notification of, but not necessarily receipt of, an approval, denial, request for evidence (RFE) or notice of intent to deny (NOID); or

(2) USCIS does not issue a notice of a subsequent adjudicative action by the end of the 15th business-day from the date USCIS received the response to an RFE or NOID. In premium processing cases where USCIS issues an RFE or NOID within 15 business days from the initial date of acceptance, a new 15-day period begins on the date that USCIS receives the response to the RFE or NOID.

(3) USCIS may retain the premium processing fee and not reach a conclusion on the request within 15 business days, and not notify the person who filed the request, if USCIS opens an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation relating to the benefit request.

(e) Requests eligible for premium processing.

(1) USCIS will designate the categories of employment-based benefit requests that are eligible for premium processing.

(2) USCIS will announce by its official internet website, currently http://www.uscis.gov, those requests for which premium processing may be requested, the dates upon which such availability commences and ends, and any conditions that may apply.