U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that effective October 1st, 2018, it will increase the premium processing fee from $1,225 to $1,410. The premium processing fee was last adjusted in 2010 and is now being increased to account for inflation.  

USCIS will use the additional funds generated by the increased premium processing fee to provide certain premium processing services to business customers, and to make infrastructure
improvements in the adjudications and customer-service processes.  Efforts to improve the premium processing service will include hiring additional staff to reduce the number of disruptions in service (such as with the suspension that recently occurred).

*Premium processing is an optional service that is currently authorized for certain petitioners filing Form I-129 Petition for a Non-immigrant Worker or Form I-140 Immigrant Petition. The service allows petitioners to request 15-day processing for the extra fee.