It is hard to believe that even in this economic downturn and even though USCIS raised their fees by a lot in 2007, here they are again making proposals for increasing their fees…again! Now do not get me wrong. I am not saying that USCIS has not increased their services or speeded up their processing times. To be honest, now USCIS officers are so well-trained that they have very little in common with the USCIS officers we saw before September 11, 2001. The Immigration Officers now are on top of their game and on top of their cases, for the most part.
But the point is that while they have increased their services, or at least it seems that way to me in dealing with them full-time in my US immigration law office, the truth is that applicants are still recovering from the fee increase of 2007. So how can USCIS now demand more USCIS filing fees?
In any event, there is one positive note and that note is that at least the N-400 filing fees remain the same. The proposal suggests that the USCIS filing fees for form I-130 increase from the current fee of $355 to $420. For form I-485, the proposal suggests an increase from $930 (not including biometrics) to $985 (also not including biometrics fee). For the form I-140, petition for alien worker, the fee increase is a little larger going from the current USCIS fee of $475 to $580 if the fee increase is passed. This fee increase seems to be about a 10% increase.
We are not saying that USCIS does not deserve a raise, only that given this downturn, maybe a raise can come at a later time…even though it is deserved (in case an immigration officer is reading this….). For general information from USCIS directly as to the reason for the proposed fee increase, please see http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=65dc3d5d65919210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010