09/29/2020 update:
On September 29, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the motion for a preliminary injunction (“PI”) filed by eight nonprofit organizations in the ongoing Fee Rule litigation. The PI has a nationwide effect and bars the rule in its entirety for the duration of the litigation. Therefore, DHS may not require its new fees, forms, and other changes outlined below.
Original post:
On August 3, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security published a new rule containing numerous adjustments to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) filing fee schedule. In the new rule, DHS is planning on an upward adjustment of USCIS fees “by a weighted average of 20 percent.”
The rule, set to go into effect on October 2, 2020, further increases fees for many commonly used forms such as N-400 for naturalization, I-485 for Adjustment of Status (AOS), I-140 for immigrant visa petitions, and I-129 for nonimmigrant visa petitions, which will carry separate fees for each visa classification.
Other significant changes in the rule include:
Employment Authorization (EAD) and Advanced Parole (AP) are now “unbundled” from AOS applications – meaning that each form must be filed with the corresponding fees, whereas previously when filed with a Form I-485 the EAD and AP fees were waived.
AOS fees for children under 14 years old are now the same as the adult fee.
Separate biometrics fees are now subsumed within the form’s fee (in most cases the separate biometrics fee is no longer required).
Premium Processing Service (PPS) is changing to 15 business days instead of 15 calendar days.
Forms available online have different fees for filing online vs. paper; the filing the fee will be $10 lower for applying online.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) has published a searchable table of fee adjustments, located here. USCIS will be publishing new forms 30 days before the rule will take effect, and new forms are required starting October 2, 2020, with some limited exceptions.
On August 20, 2020, AILA and partners sued USCIS over the rule, claiming that the agency lacked authority to issue the rule, and that its issuance violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The litigation is ongoing as of this writing.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2020