News Alert: 7 Things to Know About the USCIS Fee Increase on April 1st
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash. Effective April 1, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will increase its fees for immigration petitions and applications. Find out what’s change and how much more applicants will be required to pay in our news alert.
Updated on February 29, 2024.
Why is USCIS increasing its fees?
According to the USCIS, higher fees are needed to cover the cost of doing business and better avoid the accumulation of future backlogs as 96% of agency funding is derived from filing fees, and not from taxpayers in the form of congressional appropriations. Although in fiscal year 2022, the agency received $275 million from congress, specifically to reduce current backlogs and advance its humanitarian mission. Further appropriations of $133 million in fiscal year 2023 and $145 million in fiscal year 2024 were provided to support Refugee and Asylum activities.
As a reminder, on December 28, 2023, USCIS issued a final rule that will increase the filing fee for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, to adjust for inflation. This fee change will go into effect on Monday, February 26, 2024.
Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker: $1,685 (H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant status); $2,805 (All other available Form I-129 classifications (E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-3, L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1, TN-1, and TN-2))
Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker: $2,805 (Employment-based (EB) classifications E11, E12, E21 (non-NIW), E31, E32, EW3, E13 and E21 (NIW))
Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status: $1,965 (Form I-539 classifications F-1, F-2, M-1, M-2, J-1, J-2, E-1, E-2, E-3, L-2, H-4, O-3, P-4, and R-2)
Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization: $1,685 (Certain F-1 students with categories C03A, C03B, C03C)
What is the reason for the current backlogs?
According to USCIS, immigration filings decreased dramatically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and USCIS revenue temporarily dropped by 40%. A hiring freeze and workforce attrition reduced the agency’s capacity to complete cases, even as incoming caseloads rebounded to pre-COVID levels.
What should I know about the upcoming fee increase?
Separate filing fees for Form I-485 (adjustment of status), Form I-131 (travel document), and Form I-765 (employment authorization), whether or not they are filed together. Under the existing fee schedule, applicants for adjustment of status who are filing applications for advance parole (Form I-131) and/or employment authorization (Form I-765) are not required to pay separate fees for those benefits. The new rule now requires payment of all three fees separately but provides for discounted rate of $260 for Form I-765 for applicants for adjustment of status, and a reduced fee ($950) for adjustment of status applicants under the age of 14 in certain conditions. Currently, an applicant for adjustment of status over 14 years of age is required to pay $535 for the Form I-130 and $1,225 for the Form I-485, which includes the biometrics fees, advance parole (Form I-131) and employment authorization (Form I-765) for a total of $1,760. When the new rule takes effect, this same person will now be required to pay $675 for Form I-130, $1,440 for Form I-485, $630 for Form I-131 and $260 for Form I-765 for a total of $3,005.
New premium processing timeframe interpretation from calendar days to business days. Under the current rule, if you request premium processing, USCIS guarantees adjudicative action on the case within the time periods described below, or they will refund the premium processing fee. Under the new rule, instead of calendar days, USCIS will use business days as the new timeframe: 15 calendar days for most classifications; 30 calendar days for Form I-765 for F-1 students seeking OPT or STEM OPT extensions; 30 calendar days for Form I-539 applicants requesting a change of status to F-1, F-2, M-1, M-2, J-1, or J-2 nonimmigrant status, once all prerequisites, including receipt of biometrics, have been met; 45 calendar days for Form I-140 E13 multinational executive and manager and Form I-140 E21 national interest waiver classifications.
Institution of New Asylum Fee. The new rule includes an Asylum Program Fee of $600 that employers pay if they file either Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker, or Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers. The fee will cover some of the costs associated with asylum processing, which does not include its own fee. The final rule provides special relief for nonprofit petitioners (who will not pay the Asylum Program Fee) and for small employer petitioners with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees (who will pay half-price, or $300). USCIS will accept page 1 of most recent IRS Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Tax Return to evidence Small Employer Status. Likewise, USCIS will accept a Determination Letter from the IRS or a copy of a currently valid IRS Tax Exemption Certificate as proof of Nonprofit Status.
Implementation of a standard $50 discount for online filers. USCIS encourages online filing—where available—for a more efficient electronic submission and adjudication process. Intaking, storing, and handling paper all require significant operational resources, and information recorded on paper cannot be as effectively standardized or used for fraud and national security, information sharing, and system integration purposes.
Incorporating biometric services costs into the main benefit fee and removing the separate biometric services fee in most cases. The new fee rule includes the biometrics fees in the application fees and lowers the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applicant or re-registrant biometric services fee from $85 to $30.
Low fee increase for Naturalization applications and expansion of fee reductions/exemptions. Previously, the total cost included both an application fee ($640) and a separate biometric services fee ($85), for a total of $725 for most applicants. Under the new fee rule, there is no longer a separate biometric services fee, and the total fee is $710 for online filers or $760 for paper filers. Naturalization applicants who have incomes between 150% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines will pay $380, which is half the full fee. However, they must file a paper application to obtain the fee reduction. Applicants from vulnerable populations such as trafficking/crime/domestic violence victims, refugees, and those belonging to special categories such as current and former military service members, Afghan and and Iraqi Special Immigrants, Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ) are exempt from filing fees.
Separate fees for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, by nonimmigrant classification. See table below for select fees by nonimmigrant classification. Notably, H-1B and EB-5 application fees increase significantly. The H-1B registration fee increases from $10 to $215 effective March 2025. EB-5 application fees increased as follows: Form I-526 and Form I-526E increase from $3,675 to $11,160; Form I-829 increases from $3,750 to $9,525; Form I-956 and I-956F increase from $17,795 to $47,695; Form I-956G increases from $3,035 to $4,470.
For more information about this upcoming fee increase, read the FAQs on the dedicated USCIS webpage. This post was updated on February 29, 2024 after we attended The CIS Ombudsman’s Webinar Series: Joint Webinar with USCIS on Its New Fee Rule.
Download our client flyer about this development here.
This is a fairly new development, so we don’t know yet whether this will be implemented as it stands. It is possible that the final fee rule will be challenged in court. If a temporary restraining order (TRO) or preliminary injunction is successful, all or some of the new Fee Schedule may not take effect as scheduled. While this may prevent some of the higher fee increases from taking place, it may also mean that some of the reduced fees will also not be effective. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr, for up-to-date immigration news and to keep updated.
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