New (and Higher) USCIS Filing Fees Effective December 23, 2016
The Department of Homeland Security has just released the final rule announcing the increase of most of the Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) application filing fees. The weighted average of the increase is 21 percent and USCIS is adding one new fee. The filing fee increase will become effective for all USCIS filings starting mailed, postmarked or otherwise filed on or after December 23, 2016.
USCIS Filing Fees Increase
The table below highlights the filing fee increase for the most common types of USCIS filings. See the final rule for the full rule and a full listing of the new fees.
| Form | Current Fee | New Fee | Increase ($) | Increase (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-90 Green Card Replacement | $365 | $455 | $90 | 25% |
| I-129 Nonimmigrant Worker (H-1B, L-1, O-1, etc.) | $325 | $460 | $135 | 42% |
| I-130 Immigrant Petition/Family | $420 | $535 | $115 | 35% |
| I-131 Travel Document (advance parole, reentry permit) | $360 | $575 | $215 | 60% |
| I-140 Immigrant Petition/Employment | $580 | $700 | $120 | 21% |
| I-290B Notice of Appeal or Motion | $630 | $675 | $45 | 7% |
| I-485 Adjustment of Status | $985 | $1,140 | $155 | 16% |
| I-485 Adjustment of Status (certain minors) | $635 | $750 | $115 | 18% |
| I-539 Change or Extend Status | $290 | $370 | $80 | 28% |
| I-765 EAD | $380 | $410 | $30 | 8% |
| N-400 US Citizenship | $595 | $640 | $45 | 8% |
| USCIS Immigrant Fee | $165 | $220 | $55 | 33% |
| Biometrics Fee | $85 | $85 | No change |
Applications with Dishonored Check or Lacking Biometrics Fee Can Now Be Rejected
In addition to the new and higher filing fees, the new final rule removes provisions which prevented USCIS from rejecting an application which has been paid with a dishonored check or which did not include the required biometrics fee (for applications which require this fee). Under the current rule, USCIS would accept an application if its filing fee check bounced or if it did not include the biometrics fee but then seek the applicant to send a new check. Under the new rule, USCIS can reject the application filing altogether (which will cause delays and, possibly, cause missing filing deadlines).
New Fee Added
USCIS has added one new fee of $3,035 to recover the cost of processing the EB-5 immigrant visa annual certification of a regional center.
Rationale of Fee Increase
The final rule describes that the reason USCIS is raising the filing fees is to bring the fees in line with the actual and anticipated costs of USCIS providing the applicable services. USCIS is a fee-funded agency and it is required to evaluate periodically its fees in order to ensure proper national security, staffing and processing goals milestones. By implementing the fee increase, USCIS aims to close an estimated annual shortfall of $550 million caused mainly due to increased USCIS costs. Simply put, the fee increase is intended to reflect USCIS’s increased case processing costs and to ensure that no services have to be cut (and processing times increased).
New Higher Fees to become Effective December 23, 2016
The new higher USCIS filing fees will remain effective starting December 23, 2016. All filings received or postmarked on or after December 23, 2016 will have to include a filing fee payment based on the new schedule. After December 23, 2016, USCIS will reject any filings which do not include the new filing fee amount.
Conclusion
Many of our readers and especially those who are frequent filers (corporate clients, mainly) will not be very happy with the prospect of having to pay an (significantly) increased fee; however, the last fee increase was in 2010 and we hope that the fee increase would help bring down the processing times for a number of types of applications.
We urge our clients to consider making plans to file any upcoming applications before the new fees are to become effective on December 23, 2016. We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics. We also invite you to contact us if our office can be of any assistance in your immigration matters or you have any questions or comments about the 2016 USCIS fee increase.
About the Author: Dimo Michailov
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The Capitol Immigration Law Group has been serving the business community for over 15 years and is one of the most widely respected immigration law firms focused solely on U.S. employment-based immigration. Disclaimer: we make all efforts to provide timely and accurate information; however, the information in this article may become outdated or may not be applicable to a specific set of facts. It is not to be construed as legal advice.