On June 2, 2010, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) proposed rule to adjust the USCIS fee schedule.  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.”  Now that the proposed rule has been cleared by OMB, USCIS can proceed with publishing the rule in the Federal Register.

USCIS has advised stakeholders and the media on several occasions this year 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.  We would note that OMB completed its review of the USCIS proposed rule in less than a month, suggesting that the rule is on a fast track to publication.   Generally, when the new fee schedule is published, it will have an implementation date 30-60 days after publication.

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

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