USCIS increases fees for immigration applications
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Tuesday, January 3 that they will be adjusting their fees to file immigration requests. The vast majority (96 percent) of their operating costs are covered by these filing fees from immigrants, not from American taxpayer money.
The fees to file immigration documents with USCIS have remained the same since 2016. Over the course of the pandemic, their budget took a hit as revenue was reduced by 40 percent due to a drop in immigration applications.
According to a USCIS press release, this will slightly increase fees for certain naturalization applications. However, the proposed rule would still allow for low-income applicants to be eligible for a fee waiver. While this increases their fees, no new services are being added. It remains to be seen if this fee increase will improve the services USCIS already provides.
USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said, “This proposed rule allows USCIS to more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years and will support the Administration’s effort to rebuild the legal immigration system.”