Pamela Cruz. Pen sula 360 Press
Beginning this Friday, October 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will increase fees for certain types of nonimmigrant and naturalization petitions, as well as various types of visas.
October 1 marks the beginning of a new fiscal year for USCIS, and the number of employment-based visas available has increased due to a significant drop in processing capacity due to the closure of consular offices and service centers due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Visa Bulletin for October of this year refers to an increase in fees for most common applications, including nonimmigrant and adjustment of status applications, as well as nonimmigrant (H,L,TN,O-1, etc.) and naturalization applications.
USCIS also announced that it will launch new I-129 forms for each of these visa types, while detailing that the I-485 (adjustment of status) will no longer be grouped with the I-765 (employment authorization) and the I-131 (travel document), so applicants will have to pay a total of $2,270, when previously the combined fee was $1,140.
Some of the most common types of forms and requests that change their price are:
Nonimmigrant Visa Petitions
- Filing fee for Form I-129 for H-1B petitions (for professionals in specialized occupations): increased from $460 to $555.
- Filing fee for Form I-129 for H-2A petitions (Temporary Agricultural Visas): $460 to $850.
- Filing fee for Form I-129 for H-2B petitions (Temporary non-agricultural worker visas): $460 to $715.
- Filing fee for Form I-129 for L-1 petitions (intracompany transferees): $460 to $805.
- Filing fee for Form I-129 for O-1 petitions (Individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement in the sciences, arts, education, business, athletics, film or television): $460 to $705.
- Form I-539 filing fee for applications to change or extend nonimmigrant status: $370 to $400.
The filing fee for Form N-400 for naturalization applications increases from $1,640 to $1,170; in addition, children under 14 applying for adjustment of status with their parents will no longer be eligible to file Form I-485 at a reduced fee, so a standard fee of $1,130 will apply to all applicants regardless of age.
With some exceptions, USCIS will eliminate the separate biometric service fee for $85 and instead establish a filing fee for the larger form that incorporates the cost of the services.
Not everything is bad, among the adjustments in fees, immigrant visa petitions ("green card") have lowered their costs, since the filing fee for Form I-140 for employment-based immigrant visa applications goes from $700 to $555.
While the filing fee for Form I-485 for adjustment of status applications decreases from $1,140 to $1,130 (this amount will no longer cover the filing fees for Forms I-765 and I-131, as well as Applications for Employment Authorization and Travel Authorization, whose fees are $550 and $590, respectively).
Following a review of the fees, USCIS determined that current fees did not recover the full cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services, so prices were increased by a weighted average of 20 percent.
It should be noted that some costs increase by up to 535 percent, as is the case of the I-881 application, which is for suspension of deportation or cancellation of expulsion by special rule, which went from $285 to $1,810.
Also, Form I-929, which is a petition for a qualifying relative of a U-1 nonimmigrant, increased 546 percent, from $230 to $1,485.
While Form N-470 (Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes) increased from $355 to $1,585, which meant an increase of 346 percent.
The adjustment is intended to ensure that the agency has the resources it needs to provide adequate service to applicants and petitioners, and gives it greater flexibility in the use of those resources, he said.
