On May 5, 2010, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) referred a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review prior to publishing the rule in the Federal Register.  According to the OMB notice, the proposed rule “will adjust the fee schedule for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) immigration and naturalization benefit applications and petitions, including nonimmigrant applications and visa petitions. These fees fund the cost of processing applications and petitions for immigration benefits and services, and USCIS’ associated operating costs. USCIS is revising these fees because the current fee schedule does not adequately recover the full costs of services provided by USCIS.”

USCIS has advised stakeholders on several occasions that increasing filing fees may be necessary; however, until the proposed fee schedule is published in the Federal Register, there is no way to know what the new fees will be.  At a March meeting with stakeholders, USCIS Director Mayorkas suggested that a fee increase would be implemented before the end of the fiscal year (i.e., prior to September 30, 2010), after proper notice of the increase had been made. 

Jackson & Hertogs will continue to track the status of the proposed fee increase, and will notify clients when more information becomes available.

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