On July 30, 2007 United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will dramatically increase filing fees for applications and petitions. USCIS is the arm of the Department of Homeland Security that deals with all immigration benefits and is responsible for the administration of immigration and naturalization adjudication functions and establishing immigration services policies and priorities. On May 29, 2007, USCIS announced that the long debated fee increase will take effect at the end of July. Fees were last increased (only modestly) in October 2005 based mostly on inflation, and in early 2006 the Service began review and study of their fee schedule in earnest. The last comprehensive fee adjustment based on a comprehensive fee study occurred in 1998 when fees were increased by an average of 76%. In early 2007, the Service released the proposed rule in the Federal Register that reflected dramatic increases to filing fees for everything from Greencard applications to naturalization (citizenship) applications. A 60 day period for comments was opened on the proposed rule and USCIS proceeded to receive almost four thousand comments from the public, including individuals, public and private organizations, companies, and even state and local governments. In a recent conversation with Berta Cassidy, the Community Relations Officer at the USCIS Miami District Office, I was told that this was a very high number of comments compared to what is normally received during a 60 day comment period on a proposed regulation. That just goes to show what the combination of the topics of money and immigration will get you- lots of debate, to say the least. Comments put aside, heeded or not, the final rule that came out in the Federal Register on May 30, 2007. To give you a better idea of the magnitude of the increase consider the following examples (keep in mind that any attorney's fees are not included or contemplated in these numbers):
As can be seen from these examples, the costly business of immigration is going to go from overpriced to obscenely expensive. Why is the Service doing this? USCIS is required to recover the full costs of operations with funds generated from filing fees. At a February hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, USCIS Director Dr. Emilio Gonzalez stated that the proposed fee increase will allow USCIS to strengthen the security and integrity of the immigration system, improve customer service, and modernize business operations for the 21st century. He said that USCIS loses $3 million every day under the current fee schedule, and that the (at the time proposed) fee schedule will produce an average increase in costs to applicants and petitioners of 66%. Director Gonzalez went on to say that the fee increases will reduce processing times by 20% by the year 2009. That seems like small consolation for such a dramatic increase. But if a kinder, faster, and generally more user-friendly USCIS emerges maybe it will be worth it…well, we can dream, can't we? To read USCIS's Q&A on the new fee schedule, visit this webpage: http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/FinalFeeRuleQsAs052907.pdf Deirdre Nero Valladares, Esq. is an immigration attorney in the Customs and International Trade Law Group of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. She can be contacted at: Alhambra Towers The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before you decide, ask us to send you free, written information about our qualifications and experience. |
