On Wednesday, May 27, USCIS announced plans to substantially
raise filing fees. By way of background, on November 14, 2019, the
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) published a
notice of proposed rulemaking to increase filing fees by a weighted
average of 21%. This rule was published after an internal review
concluded that the current USCIS fee structure does not recover the
costs of adjudication. Last week USCIS sent its implementation
plans for these increases to the White House — an indication
that higher fees for immigration benefits will soon be a
reality.
While an average increase of 21% is significant, this does not
tell the whole story. If a final rule takes effect as indicated in
the proposed rule, the following are examples of some extraordinary
fee increases that would take effect:
