Last week, the government announced a series of proposed fee increases that are staggeringly steep. At the moment, the proposal is undergoing a public comment period, but unless there is some sort of litigation to block the changes, applicants may have to dig deeper to defray these costs when they go into effect later this year/early next year. Here are some of the applications that will be going up:
Application Current Fee Proposed Fee
I-102 $445 $490
I-129L $460 $815
I-129O $460 $715
I-130 $535 $555
I-131 $575 $585
I-131A $575 $1010
I-193 $585 $2790
I-212 $930 $1040
I-485 combo $1225 $2195
I-601 $930 $985
I-601A $630 $960
I-751 $595 $760
N-336 $700 $1755
N-400 $640 $1170
The changes that are likely to affect most people are the citizenship and green card applications: naturalization is going up 83 percent; the adjustment of status change is deceiving because while the base fee is actually going down by $20, applicants will have to pay separately for the I-765 and I-131, applications for which there is no fee when filed with the I-485 currently. In light of these proposed changes, prospective applicants may want to consider filing sooner rather than later so that they are not affected by the fee increases.