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Does premium processing raise the RFE risk?

Key answer

Opinions differ, but most consider it a myth: a denial must justify rejecting each document and takes longer than an approval, the officer's KPI is cases per allotted time, and premium only moves your petition forward in the queue. Some members allow that a time-pressed officer may find it easier to issue an RFE, after which the clock is no longer regulated, and mention RFEs arriving on the last premium day. Overall: if you can afford it, speed it up; without premium the chance of a strict officer is the same, but you wait about a year.
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Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • This is nonsense. It takes longer to issue a denial than an approval: to issue a denial, you still have to review all the documents to justify rejecting each or most of them in the decision.

  • I read about this: the officer has about two and a half hours by regulation to review a case, a stack of cases gets assigned to him, and he works through them. There are both regular petitions and premium ones; it doesn't matter to him. His KPI is the number of cases handled in the allotted time. Premium only means your petition will hit the desk sooner, nothing more.

  • There is room for debate here. There is a likelihood that if the officer cannot review the case within 15 days, especially near holidays or in general, it may be easier for them to send an RFE, and the process is no longer time-regulated.

  • Why would he do that? He is not refunding the fee from his pocket. His task is to do a good job within the regulatory timeframe without having to deal with court again, which means a justified decision is needed. Court costs are higher than the return on premium. Nothing personal, it's just business.

  • There's a broad opinion from the chat: it is not confirmed. This is often said by individual attorneys. If you have the money for premium, it's better to speed it up. Without premium, the chance of getting a strict officer and receiving an RFE or NOID is the same, but you'll wait about a year.

  • Currently, the percentage of RFEs and denials has sharply increased, I prefer to wait it out; maybe the situation will improve, and I will not submit for premium. They often send RFEs on the last day of premium processing, apparently, they don't have enough time to evaluate properly. One well-known firm states that the likelihood of an RFE with premium is higher.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

All questions on: Process and timelinesAll questions on: RFE and denialsAll questions on: The petition and formattingAll questions on: EB-1AAll questions on: EB-2 NIW

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A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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