USCIS Fee Increase to take Effect October 2, 2020

For months now, the Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has been discussing, and proposing, increases to the agency's filing fees for applications for immigration benefits. On August 3, 2020, CIS published a final rule that significantly increases application filing fees, which takes effect on October 2, 2020. The current fees have been in place since December 2016. The agency’s operations are principally funded (97%) by the filing fees that applicants for immigration benefits file. According to CIS’ website, the agency "conducted a comprehensive biennial fee review and determined that current fees do not recover the cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services. DHS is adjusting USCIS fees by a weighted average increase of 20% to help recover its operational costs. Current fees would leave the agency underfunded by about $1 billion per year."

According to CIS, there has been a recent decline in the number of applications it has received, which has caused a decrease in its income, and thus required them to seek $1.2 Billion bailout from Congress, a request that has been hotly debated in Congressional hearings.

There are several common applications whose filing fees are significantly increasing. Applications for naturalization (filed by lawful permanent residents who seek to become US citizens) are going up from the current filing fee of $640 to $1,170. Multinational executive and manager petitions filed by US employers are going to experience an increase of 75% in required filing fees.

In addition, currently when a foreign person applies for lawful permanent residence (commonly referred to as green card), the filing fee includes costs for requesting permission to work and travel while the application is pending. Under the new rules, these applications will have to be paid for separately ($550 and $590, respectively), meaning that for a family of four the filing fees will go up from $4,900 to $9,080.

The largest increase is for victims of crimes who are granted lawful status and petition for family members, such as minor children. The increase in filing fee for this type of application is going up by an astounding 546%.

These increased filing fees come amid criticism of the agency for its failure to adjudicate many applications in a timely manner, as well as its failure to issue documentation evidencing a person’s immigration status, such as employment authorization documents. The agency was recently sued over its failure to produce employment authorization cards after having approved the applications filed. The judge overseeing the case in Ohio, on August 3, 2020, issued a temporary restraining order, ordering the government to issue the approved employment authorization cards within 7 days. The order will remain in effect until the adjournment of a hearing on the preliminary injunction, which was scheduled for August 10, 2020, though a joint motion to continue was filed on August 5, 2020.

If you have been considering applying for immigration benefits, now may be the time to take action before the increases take effect. Please contact one of the highly skilled immigration attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.