USCIS Proposes New Filing Fees

11/14/2019

Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register that would amend USCIS' filing fees. While USCIS announced a change to the premium processing fee for I-129 and I-140 petitions last month, the proposed rule would be the first wholesale change to USCIS' filing fee structure since October 2016. USCIS' rule includes several notable proposed changes, including:

1) Creating separate versions of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and setting filing fees based on the requested classification. New forms would include Form I-129H1 and I-129L for the H-1 and L classifications. As proposed, Form I-129H1 would have a filing fee of $560, and the filing fee for Form I-129L1 would be $815. The current I-129 filing fee is $460.

2) Changing USCIS' timeline to act on a premium process request from fifteen calendar days to fifteen business days.

3) Reducing the I-140, Petition for Immigrant Worker filing fee from $700 to $545.

4) Changing the I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status filing fee to $1,120, which would incorporate what is currently a separate biometrics filing fee. The new fee would be required for all applicants. Currently, certain applicants under the age of fourteen are only required to pay a $750 filing fee.

5) Increasing the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization filing fee from $410 to $490.

6) Increasing the I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status filing fee from $370 to $400.

7) Increasing the I-130, Petition for Alien Relative filing fee from $535 to $555.

8) Increasing the I-131, Application for Travel Document filing fee from $575 to $585.

The public commend period ends December 16th. If you have any questions about the proposed changes, please contact your Goel & Anderson attorney.