Today the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it will raise the filing fees for most immigration benefits. The new fees will take effect on November 23, 2010. The final rule announcing the fee increases will be published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2010. The final fee increases are very similar to what was initially proposed by USCIS in June. The fees for most petitions will increase by a weighted average of 10%. The filing fee for an I-129 petition will be raised by five dollars, while the filing fee for the I-140 Immigrant Visa Petition increases by $105. Some petitions, including the N-400 naturalization application will have no fee increase.
In addition to the increase in filing fees for standard forms and applications, USCIS will increase the fees for its premium processing service. The premium process fee (currently set at $1000) will go up to $1225. The USCIS attributes this increase to the change in the Consumer Price Index since the premium processing fee was first introduced in 2001.
USCIS has justified the fee increases as being necessary to meet budgetary and funding requirements. Ninety percent of the USCIS operating costs are to come from collected petition fees. The additional premium processing fees have been justified as necessary to help improve technology and customer service initiatives at USCIS.
Any application filed with the USCIS prior to November 23, 2010 will still be subject to the current fee schedule. Applications submitted on or after November 23, 2010 will be subject to the new fees. If you have any questions about these fees please feel free to contact Graham Adair for more information (info@grahamadair.com).