• by Santhosh Rao

DHS will be publishing a notice adjusting the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Filing Fees. DHS last adjusted the fee schedule on December 23, 2016. The fees would be raised by a weighted average of 21% and would affect most employment-based petitions and requests. The proposed fee increases are as follows:

1. DHS has proposed a fee of $50 for Asylum application
2. N-400 – $530 increase or 83% fee increase from $640 to $1,170 for most applicants
3. DACA EAD-$275 to renew their two-year legal permits
4. L-1 Petition- $355 increase or 77% increase to $815 from $460
5. O-Visa Petitions: $255 increase or 55% increase to $715 from $460
6. Proposed fee for I-129E and TN (Treaty investor classification Applicants and Mexican/ Canadian applicants) and I-129 MISC (Petitioners from categories of H-3, P, Q or R) to increased $245 increase or 53% increase to $705 from $460
7. I-130 Petition – $20 increase or 4 % increase from 535 to $555
8. I-131 Petition -$10 increase or 2 % increase from 575 to $585
9. I-140 Petition – decrease of $155 or 22 percent from $700 to $545
10. I-485 Application – decrease by $20 or 2 percent from $1,140 to $1,120
11. I-485 (children) – increase by $370 or 49 percent from $750 to $1,120
12. I-765 EAD – increase by $80 or 20 percent from $410 to $490
    DHS also proposes to change premium processing time from 15 calendar days to 15 business days (which would include only days where the Federal government are open for business and does not include weekends, holidays and days where federal government are closed for weather related reasons and other reasons). USCIS suspended premium processing for certain categories of employment-based petitions to permit officers to process long-pending non-premium filed petitions and to prevent a lapse in employment authorization for beneficiaries of Form I-129 extension of stay petitions. They were also unable to accomplish the required 15-day response due to the high volume of incoming petitions. The proposed change from 15 calendar days to 15 business days will provide USCIS additional time to complete the necessary processing on a premium processing petition and issue a decision.

In addition, DHS will eliminate fee waivers thereby requiring applicants with incomes under the federal poverty line to pay the higher citizenship fee and any costs associated with renewing a green card or work permit.

The published tentative set of fees will be open for public comment for 30 days beginning November 14, 2019. USCIS would also separate Form I-129 Petition for Non-immigrant Worker into several separate forms for each classification, such as H-1, L, O, TN, etc., that would each have its own filing fee.

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