United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the publication of a final rule to adjust immigration and naturalization requests fees. Noting that the fee increase is the first since 2016, and necessary for recovering the costs of operations, the new fees will be effective on April 1, 2024. The new fee schedule table details the filing fees to be collected by petition or application type. “For individual filers, the final rule generally limits newly established fees to no more than the increase in the Consumer Price Index since 2016, which is 26%.” However, the fees associated with employment-based visas and employer sponsored green card petitions have been significantly increased.
As of April 1st, US employers will pay “70% more for beneficiaries on H-1B petitions, 201% more for employees on L-1 petitions and 129% more for individuals on O-1 petitions (H-1B petitions increase from $460 to $780, L-1 petitions rise from $460 to $1,385 and O-1 petitions increase from $460 to $1,055).” The final rule also includes a new Asylum Program Fee of $600 that employers will pay when filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker, or Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers. This new fee will “cover some of the costs associated with asylum processing, which does not include its own fee.” Nonprofit petitioners will be exempt from the Asylum Program Fee and petitioners with 25 or fewer full-time employees will pay half of the fee. The H-1B Electronic Registration Fee first established in 2019, will also be increasing from $10 to $215, (a 2,050% increase) for each beneficiary. Because the fee hike is set to take effect on April 1, 2024, fiscal year 2025 visa lottery applicants will not be paying the increased rate, as the registration period ends on March 22, 2024, before the inflated fee is in effect.
Additionally, I-485 Applications to Adjust Status will be increasing from $1,225 to $1,440 (an increase of 18%), with biometric services fee included in the new amount. However, applicants who wish to file Form I-765, employment authorization document (EAD) application together with their adjustment of status application will pay an additional $260 filing fee. Furthermore, adjustment applicants wishing to apply for advance parole (AP) by filing Form I-131 alongside their adjustment of status application, will incur an additional $630 filing fee for adjudication. In an effort to encourage online filings, the Service will be offering a $50 discount for forms filed electronically.
A complete list of the fee changes is available on the USCIS website. USCIS has also published a preview of its G—1055 fee schedule ahead of the changes to take place on April 1, 2024.