Immigration Services plans to raise application fees from $1,225 to $1,540 for Green Cards

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that oversees legal immigration, is planning to raise costs for an array of applications including ones required for citizenship naturalization, to obtain a green card, or to legally work in the U.S. as a noncitizen.
The increases vary, but many immigration attorneys are concerned that the fee hikes could place an undue burden on low-income immigrants — particularly those seeking lawful permanent residency, commonly known as a green card, which allows immigrants long-term stay in the U.S. It is also an important step to become eligible for citizenship.
The Federal Agency Says It Needs The Increased Fees To Deal With Backlogs And A Budget Crunch
USCIS primarily relies on fees to operate — which proved to be an issue during the pandemic.

As fewer people applied for immigration benefits, the federal agency’s revenue plummeted, leading to widespread furloughs and a backlog in immigration cases.

To fully recover, the federal agency said it needs to raise application fees, adding that the proposed prices are expected to generate $1.9 billion more per year than current application costs.
“This is the amount necessary to match agency capacity with projected workloads, so that backlogs do not accumulate in the future,” USCIS wrote in its proposal released in early January.

The federal agency generally updates its fee schedule every few years, the last time being 2016. During the Trump administration, there was an attempt to raise costs dramatically, as well make it harder for poor immigrants to qualify for fee waivers, but federal judges eventually blocked those changes.

Karen Sullivan, the director of advocacy at Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., said she wants to see USCIS fully funded, fully staffed and operating efficiently, but she questions whether low-income immigrants should have to bear that responsibility.

“All of us should want migrant communities to have access to the benefits that they qualify for,” Sullivan told NPR. “So, I think that Congress should take notice, as far as appropriations go, in helping USCIS with additional funding.”