The USCIS has proposed recently to dramatically increase the USCIS filing fees. The USCIS projects that the proposed fee increase will result in an increase of 66 percent over the current average. In its proposal, the USCIS released the list of forms/case types affected by the increase.
The most affected cases are those for employment based nonimmigrant visas (H-1Bs and L-1s especially), family and employment based green cards as well as U.S. citizenship cases. For example, I-129 Petition for Non-Immigrant Worker would increase from $190 to $290; I-130 Petition for Alien Relative would increase from $190 to $355; I-140 Petition for Alien Worker from $195 to $475; I-485 Application to Register or Adjust Status from $325 to $905; I-765 Application for Employment Authorization Document from $180 to $340; I-131 Application for Travel Document from $170 to $305; and N-400 Application for Naturalization from $330 to $595. These are all substantial increases. For a complete listing of cases and applications affected, please see the Adjustment of the Immigration and Naturalization Benefit Application and Petition Fee Schedule; Proposed Rule.
Currently, the regulation is in its proposed rule stage. Affected individuals and companies had time up until April 2, 2007 to voice their comments regarding the proposed fee increase. USCIS had already completed its review of all the comments it had received and had quickly submitted the draft of the final regulation for OMB’s (Office of Management and Budget) approval on April 17, 2007. While it is uncertain how long the OMB will take to approve the final regulation, as it could take anytime from 30 to 90 days, one thing is for sure: file all petitions and applications as soon as possible to avoid paying the sky-rocketing filing fees.
For more information, please contact the Guttikonda Law Firm.
