“IMMIGRATION LAW CONNECTION”

Following suit on the U.S. State Department’s move to increase filing fees in an effort to offset rising processing costs,  USCIS is now proposing some sweeping fee increases of about 10% in the coming weeks or months.

According to a recent USCIS press release, “USCIS is a fee-based organization with about 90 percent of its budget coming from fees paid by applicants and petitioners to obtain immigration benefits.  The law requires USCIS to conduct fee reviews every two years to determine whether it is recovering its costs to administer the nation’s immigration laws, process applications, and provide the infrastructure needed to support those activities.”

Most recently, USCIS hiked filing fees in July 2007, where many fees were nearly doubled from their previous levels.

Under current fee increase proposals, the current fee structure would also establish three new fees, including

1. a fee for regional center designations under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program,
2. a fee for individuals seeking civil surgeon designation, and
3. a fee to recover USCIS’s cost of processing immigrant visas granted by the Department of State.

The proposed fee structure also reduces fees for certain individual applications and petitions as a result of lower processing costs.  USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas stated:  “Requesting and obtaining U.S. citizenship deserves special consideration given the unique nature of this benefit to the individual applicant, the significant public benefit to the Nation, and the nation’s proud tradition of welcoming new citizens. Recognizing the unique importance of naturalization, we propose that the naturalization application fee not be increased.”

Should you be in need of filing any type of application or petition with USCIS in the coming weeks, you may want to expedite your plans and efforts to do so, and try to get your case filed (and received by USCIS) under the current fee structure, before newer, higher filing fees take effect.