USCIS PROPOSES 86% INCREASE IN FILING FEES
by Michael J. Gurfinkel, Esq.

Recently, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a notice in the Federal Register (a United States government publication), seeking to increase filing fees for various petitions and applications by as much as 86%. According to USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez, "As a fee-based agency, we must be able to recover the costs necessary to administer an efficient and secure immigration system that ultimately improves service delivery, prevents future backlogs, closes security gaps, and furthers our modernization efforts." If implemented, the new fees could go into effect by this summer.

The USCIS explained that it is a "fee-based agency", meaning that it does not receive funding from Congress for its operations, but instead must raise its operating costs and expenses from the fees it charges. According to USCIS' "careful and comprehensive fee review", the fee increase is necessary in order to insure that USCIS recovers its full business costs. In other words, USCIS found that it was costing them more to process petitions and applications than the fees they were charging. So, they were losing money.

Several examples of current and proposed fees for specific applications and petitions include:

1. Application to Replace a Permanent Resident Card (I-90) - current fee is $190; proposed fee is $290; (increase of $100)
   
   
2. Petition for Alien Fiance (I-129F) - current fee is $170; proposed fee is $455; (increase of $285)
   
   
3. Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (I-485) - current fee is $325; proposed fee is $905; (increase of $580)
   
   
4. Application for Naturalization (N-400) - current fee is $330 and proposed fee is $595. (increase of $265)
   
   
5. Petition for Alien Relative (I-130) - current fee is $190, and proposed fee is $355; (increase of $165)
   
   
6. Application for Employment Authorization (I-765) - current fee is $180, and proposed fee is $340; (increase of $160) and
   
   
7. Waiver Applications - current fee is $265, and proposed fee is $545; (increase of $280).

Be aware that soon there may be a dramatic increase in filing fees for various petitions and applications. So, if you were thinking about filing, consider doing it now.

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