USCIS Announces Premium Processing Fee Increase

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will increase the premium processing fee for most petitions currently eligible for premium processing to $2,500 (yes, that’s a 75% increase!).  The new processing fee takes effect on Monday, October 19.  For petitions requesting H-2B or R-1 (religious workers) classification, the fee will increase from $1,440 to $1,500. 

Following today’s announcement, any petition with a request for premium processing postmarked on or after October 19 must include the new fee of $2,500.  Otherwise, USCIS will reject the Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, and return the filing fee that was sent.  For petitions sent by commercial couriers, such as UPS, FedEx and DHL, the postmark date is the date when the courier picked up the petition (not the date the label was printed). 

This fee increase follows the Continuing Appropriation Act, signed into law on October 1, which authorizes USCIS to establish and collect additional premium processing fees.  As part of this legislation, USCIS is allowed to expand premium processing to additional forms and benefit requests, which they have not done yet.   The fee increase is the first action USCIS has taken since the legislation was passed. 

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as soon as they become available.

This update is for informational purposes only.  If you would like to discuss this development further, please do not hesitate to contact me.