U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is raising certain immigration and naturalization fees for the first time since 2016. This change will take effect on April 1.
These increases affect employment-based petitions, family-based immigration petitions and U.S. naturalization cases. Under U.S. immigration law, USCIS must revise its fee structure every two years.
“Keeping these fees unchanged for three years after passage of bill [USCIS Stabilization] Behavior, [the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS] USCIS is currently increasing the premium processing fees charged by USCIS for all eligible forms and categories to reflect inflation between June 2021 and June 2023. ” USCIS statement.
USCIS and DHS agencies rely primarily on user fees for nearly 96% of their business.
The key change is the H-1B visa, a category that allows 85,000 highly skilled foreigners to come to the United States to work for at least three years. The registration fee will increase from $10 to $215 per registration, effective in March 2025, for the fiscal 2026 quarter and subsequent years. The employer pays these fees.
According to the immigration agency, the goal is to align fees with the operating costs associated with managing the H-1B registration system. But for the ongoing fiscal year 2025 cap season, the registration fee remains $10.
The fee for applying for U.S. citizenship is currently $640, which increases to $710 if you apply online. If the applicant chooses to send the application by mail, the fee is $760.
U.S. citizens and green card holders can apply to sponsor certain family members through Form I-130. The petition currently costs $675 to submit on paper and $625 online.
U.S. citizens who wish to bring their fiancé to the United States will pay $675 for a K-1 visa instead of $535.
Applicants filing Form I-485 to adjust status to permanent residence (also known as a green card) will pay a fee between $1,225 and $1,440. Employment authorization and advance parole, which were originally free to apply for during the adjustment of status process, will now cost an additional $260 and $630, respectively.
USCIS also introduced a new asylum program fee of $600 to process applications for temporary and permanent workers from certain employers. The employer pays the fee.
The fee will support asylum-related operations, including those related to the Biden administration’s asylum processing rules. Under the rule, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, rather than immigration judges, would be responsible for conducting asylum-application interviews for certain recent arrivals.
The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association commented during the March 2023 rulemaking process expressing concerns about the impact on small business owners.
The American Immigration Council stated, “In the final rule, USCIS has decided to charge lower filing and asylum program fees for small employers (up to 25 full-time employees) and lower filing and asylum program fees for nonprofit organizations .”
In fiscal year 2023, USCIS received 10.9 million applications. The agency also said it has closed more than 10 million open cases, which has reduced the overall backlog by 15%. USCIS also recited the Pledge of Allegiance to more than 878,500 new US citizens.
“We have completed a record number of cases to respond to emerging cases around the world with necessary humanitarian relief,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur M. Jaddou wrote in a statement. crisis and applying innovative solutions to improve customer experience and reduce backlogs.”
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