USIS Proposes Significant Fee Increases
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to increase most of its government filing fees, and change the premium processing time to 15 business days instead of calendar days due to budgetary shortfalls.
As detailed below, USCIS will 1) designate different filing fees for each temporary worker category, 2) separate out the fees for the adjustment of status application from the fees for interim work and travel benefits, 3) add a fee for asylum applications, 4) significantly increase the fee for naturalization applications, and 5) remove the separate biometrics fee. The proposed fees will be officially published on November 14, 2019, for public comment, but an unofficial copy of the proposed fees was made available on Friday afternoon.
Nonimmigrant Worker Petitions
Currently, there is only one base filing fee for the Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, which covers classifications such as the H, E, TN, L, and O. Under the new rule, Form I-129 would be separated to classify the specific type of workers:
USCIS believes these fees will better reflect the cost associated with the time it takes to adjudicate each specific nonimmigrant classification.
Adjustment of Status Applications and Interim Benefits
USCIS also plans on separating out the filing fees for the adjustment application where the Forms I-485, I-765, and I-131 are usually filed together and only one filing fee applies, resulting in a dramatic increase in fees if all three applications will be filed together in the future.
Naturalization and Asylum
Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, and Form I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal are facing significant changes. The naturalization application fee would be raised to $1,170 from the current fee of $725 ($640 application fee and $85 biometrics fee).
USCIS has also proposed a $50 filing fee for the asylum application, which previously was never required. In the proposed rule, it provided information on the asylum application fees in Iran, Fiji and Australia, the three other countries in the world who charge asylum fees. The new fee would not apply to unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who are in removal proceedings. There would be no waiver for those who cannot afford to pay the $50.
Premium Processing
USCIS is not proposing to change premium processing fees at this time, however, in the past it has been unable to accomplish the required 15-day response due to the high volume of incoming petitions and a significant surge in premium processing requests. Therefore, they are proposing to change the processing time from 15 calendar days to 15 business days. The additional time may reduce the need to suspend premium processing.
Conclusion
For a look at USCIS’ current fee schedule, visit this link. The proposed rule will be formally published in the Federal Register on November 14 and will be open to a comment period for 30 days after which time it will finalize the rule for publication.
We will continue to monitor this proposal. If you have any concerns or questions about this development, please do not hesitate to contact us.