WASHINGTON D.C. – The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, has proposed a steep increase in the application fees for naturalization and legal permanent resident.
USCIS has forwarded to the Federal Register its proposed fees for comment from the public before its implementation this year. It wants to raise the application fee for citizenship from $330 to $595 and the fee for becoming a legal permanent resident from $325 to $905.
It said the increase was necessary because USCIS is dependent on fees for its operation. "As a fee-based agency we must be able to recover the cost 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," said Emilio Gonzalez, USCIS director.
The agency estimates the new fees would
reduce average application processing times by the end of September 2009. Fees
for other immigration services would rise an average of 66 percent.
Applicants now pay a $70 fingerprinting
fee, and the agency wants to raise that to $80. Fees also are paid for things
such as work permits, replacing lost green cards and petitions to adopt orphans
from other countries.
Meanwhile, the Senate and House
committees have served notice to USCIS that they will review the proposed fees.
The last update of immigration fees was
made in Oct. 26, 2005.
Under this new rate, USCIS will also
merge fees for certain applications so that applicants will pay a single fee
rather than paying several fees for related services.
Under the proposal, the cost to
applicants for application and petition fees will now average about $438, an
increase of $174 or 66 percent from the current average (when combined with the
biometric fee for obtaining applicant fingerprints and photographs). The
proposal also raises the biometric fee by $10, to $80. In addition, in the
Notice of Proposed Rule Making, USCIS is proposing to eliminate certain interim
benefit fees for applicants who apply for adjustment of status to permanent
residence. Also, the proposal will exempt applicants for humanitarian reasons
from paying a fee for certain benefits including T-Nonimmigrant Status (I-914)
- Victims of Human Trafficking; and applicants seeking immigrant classification
under the Violence Against Women Act.
USCIS’ current procedure of waiving fees
for various classes of applicants, for example those filing for asylum, and
members of the U.S. Armed Forces filing for naturalization, will continue. The
proposal will also clarify the waiver process by limiting fee waivers to
specific situations, including consideration for one’s inability to pay. In
granting a waiver, USCIS will consider all factors, circumstances, and evidence
supplied by the applicant including age, disability, household income, and qualification within the past 180 days for a
federal means tested benefit.
The weighted average increase for
application and petition fees will be approximately 86 percent. The increase in
actual costs to applicants and petitioners will be only 66 percent, however,
because applicants for adjustment of status will no longer be required to pay a
fee to apply for interim benefits. Specifically, this constitutes an average of
$438, an increase of $174 (66 percent) from the current average.
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; (2) Petition for Alien Fianc_ (I-129F) - current fee is $170; proposed
fee is $455; (3) Application to Register Permanent Status or Adjust Status
(I-485) - current fee is $325; proposed fee is $9051; and (4) Application for
Naturalization (N-400) - current fee is $330; proposed fee is $595.
The proposed rule on the fee adjustments
is now published in the Federal Register for comments from the public
(www.regulations.gov). The proposed rule provides for a 60-day public comment
period. After receipt and analysis of the comments, USCIS will draft a final
rule reflecting the public input. It is important to note that a proposed rule
does not and cannot by itself, raise any immigration benefit application fees.
Publication is only the beginning of the regulatory process where an agency
announces its intentions to change its current regulations, and solicits public
comments on the effect of these changes.
