On January 4, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

USCIS generally receives 96 percent of its funding from its customers through filing fees, not from taxpayers in the form of Congressional appropriations.

The projected revenue of $5.2 billion is needed for USCIS to fully recover the cost of all expenses and meet the projected demand for services. It would allow USCIS to increase the number of adjudicators processing applications (to avoid the accumulation of future backlogs), implement technological improvements, and increase the support provided to individuals seeking information and assistance from USCIS.

Some specific changes in the proposed rule include:

  • Incorporating biometrics costs into the main benefit fee and removing the separate biometric services fee in most cases;
  • For Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative increase the filing fee from $535 to $820, representing a 53% increase;
  • For Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status filed with the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization and I-131, Application for Travel Document increase the filing fee from $1,225 to $2,820, representing a 130% increase;
  • For Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) increase the filing fee from $535 to $720, representing a 34% increase;
  • For Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, increase the filing fee from $595 to $1,195, representing a 100% increase;
  • For a stand-alone Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, increase the filing fee from $410 to $650, representing a 58% increase; and
  • For Form N-400, Application for Naturalization from $640 to $760 for paper and online filings, representing a 19% increase.

For a full list of the proposed fees, click here.

DHS will accept public comments on this proposed rule for 60 days or until March 13, 2023. The Electronic Federal Docket Management System will accept comments before midnight eastern time at the end of that day. Then, DHS will carefully review and consider each comment before drafting and publishing a final rule to implement a new fee schedule. The fee increase will not change until the FINAL rule goes into effect.

We encourage the public to submit comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Please follow the website instructions for submitting comments.

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