The USCIS has announced that effective April 3, 2017, that the Premium processing service will be suspended for an indefinite period of time, possibly up to 6 months. Previous suspensions of this service upgrade have impacted H-1b cap/lottery cases but, not all cases so this suspension has a broader effect. Current processing times on H-1b cases filed under the regular processing are between 9 and 12 months. This suspension will impact summer travel plans and may prevent H-1b workers from changing employers or returning to employment after extended leaves. The USCIS has stated that the purpose of the suspension is to allow them to move resources from the PP units to work on cases that have become severely backlogged.