WASHINGTON D.C. – Homeland Security’s US and Immigration Services is raising its citizenship and green card fees by as much as 66 per cent effective at the end of July, 2007.

Immigrant advocates immediately denounced the doubling of citizenship and the tripling of fees for permanent resident green cards. Citizenship fees will rise from $330 to $675, permanent resident visa from $325 to $930.

USCIS justified the increase by saying the increases were needed to help the overloaded agency reduce the backlog and speed up processing of immigration papers. “The reason we’re raising the fees, short answer, is that we need the money," said Emilio T. Gonzales, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. “A lot of people are going to be affected by this, there’s no sugarcoating it."

Gonzales said 99% of the agency’s budget came from user fees, a system Congress devised based on the principle that the costs of citizenship should be borne by immigrants, not taxpayers. Gonzales said the fee increase will take effect at the end of July.

USCIS said immigration fees have not been changed since 1998. In 2004, the Government Accountability Office reported that fees were not covering the agency’s costs and urged a reevaluation. The fees being announced today represent “arduous, sometimes laborious and painstaking research,” Gonzales said. The agency received about 3,900 comments from the public after the proposed fees were published in the Federal Register.