🔥 H-1B Premium Processing Takes More Than 15 Business Days — Can You Get the Premium Fee Refunded?

Recently, Xiaozeng Attorney has noticed that H-1B premium processing has been getting noticeably slower.

Previously, when applicants chose premium processing, most cases would receive a decision within around 8–12 business days (see Figure 2 for a small compilation of recently approved cases). However, several of our recent H-1B premium processing cases have taken almost the full 15 business days to receive a decision.

This naturally raises the question: If USCIS does not issue a decision within 15 business days, can the premium processing fee be refunded?

The answer is: In principle, yes. You can refer to the relevant federal regulations shown in Figure 3.

However, in practice, whether the fee will actually be refunded still depends on USCIS’s determination in the specific case.

We previously handled an H-4 pending → H-1B change of status case with premium processing. USCIS received the application on April 7, 2026, but did not approve it until June 1. After the approval, we contacted the Premium Processing Center to request a refund of the premium processing fee.

After nearly two months of waiting, we finally received a response from USCIS on July 30 stating that the premium processing fee would not be refunded because the case required additional security vetting (see Figure 4 for the email screenshot).

Our guess is that this may have been because the applicant’s H-4 case was still pending at the time. USCIS may have needed additional time to review the H-4 case and confirm that there were no issues with the applicant’s maintenance of status before ultimately approving the H-1B.

Fortunately, USCIS did not issue an RFE for the H-1B simply because the H-4 case was pending. The case just took longer than a typical premium processing case, and it was ultimately approved successfully.

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