US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last week that the agency will now be accepting credit card payments for forms filed and processed at USCIS Lockbox facilities. This new payment option is available for forty-one fee based forms, including most forms for both marriage-based Green Cards and employment-based Green Cards, as well as citizenship applications. Examples of these forms include Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative; Form I-131, Application for Travel Document; Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status; Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization; Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card; and Form N-400, Application for Naturalization.

USCIS currently has three Lockbox facilities located in Chicago, Illinois, Phoenix, Arizona, and Lewisville, Texas. These facilities are operated by the US Department of Treasury and comprised of designated financial agents. Applicants who wish to submit their applications to one of these facilities and pay their filing fees by using a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover credit card must submit a Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transaction, with their application. A financial agent will then enter the credit card information into the Pay.gov system, a secure electronic payment method used by federal government agencies that is also operated by the US Department of Treasury. The Form G-1450 will then be destroyed to protect the applicant’s credit card information.

Recently, applicants have already been able to use a credit card when applying for naturalization online (or to renew or replace a Green Card) through the USCIS website. Applicants have also been able to provide payments using a credit card for naturalization forms filed at Lockbox facilities since 2015. Still, this new credit card payment method will benefit many more applicants.