Washington: The United States has announced a temporary suspension of the premium processing visa service for religious workers after detecting ``potential vulnerabilities'' in the process, a move that will affect applicants from several countries, including India.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service's office of Fraud Detection and National Security recently completed a Benefit Fraud Assessment for religious worker petitions that revealed ``significant issues and potential vulnerabilities.''

The suspension of the premium processing for religious workers under the R-1 Non-Immigrant visa application is for a period of six months beginning November 28, 2006.

During this period a determination will be made whether the agency can stay within the 15-day period for expedited or premium processing.

``As a result of this assessment and to ensure the integrity of the religious worker programme, additional adjudication procedures are necessary. Premium Processing Service guarantees that within 15 calendar days of receipt of a petition, USCIS will issue either an approval notice, a notice of intent to deny, a request for evidence or open an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation,'' the Department of Homeland Security has said in a statement.

``Due to the complexities of the USCIS adjudication processes at this time, the agency can not reasonably ensure this level of processing service for the R-1 petitions within 15 calendar days,'' the statement said. — PTI

``Therefore, USCIS is temporarily suspending the premium processing service for Aliens in a Religious Occupation,'' the statement added.

The USCIS has made it known that at the end of the six month period the agency may prescribe additional conditions of availability for premium processing or may do away with this service altogether for the R-1 visa classification.

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