Dhaka, March 4 -- Applicants seeking to obtain visas and green cards in the United States within a short time are about to face more "complications" as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has enforced new rules increasing premium processing fees from Mar 1.

Under the new rules, applicants will have to pay higher fees for premium processing of petitions ranging from the H-1B visa to employment-based green cards.

The information was announced in a USCIS notice, which said the move was taken to adjust fees in line with inflation and to help reduce the long-standing backlog in visa processing.

USCIS said only applications submitted with the increased fees will be accepted for priority processing. Otherwise, the a...