USCIS Seeks Public Opinion on the Revised Fees for Immigration Benefit Applications and Petitions!
USCIS is planning to revise the fees for immigration benefit applications and petitions. It has proposed a federal rule regarding the adjustment of the fee structure. According to the proposed rule, even though there would be a 10 percent weighted average increase in the overall fees for the immigration benefit applications and petitions, the naturalization application fee will in no way be affected. In order to the get the public opinion, the proposed federal rule has been posted to the federal register.
USCIS is primarily funded by the fees paid for applications and petitions by individuals seeking immigration benefits. The fee is accountable for about 90 percent of USCIS’s budget. In order to verify that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are not facing any loss of income, review of its fee structure every two years has been made mandatory by the law.
Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, expressed that USCIS is considerate about the effect of this proposed fee hike on the people. He also added that USCIS is also analyzing other cost cutting measures in order to reduce the impact of the proposed fee increase. Taking into account, the importance of becoming the citizens of the United States and the significant advantage it offers to the nation, the application fee for naturalization has not been increased.
Since the fiscal year 2008, the revenue generated from the fee for immigration benefit applications and petitions has remained low. Although there have been budgets cuts of around $160 million, under the recommendations from Congress, they were not adequate to compensate between the costs and expected revenue. Therefore, altering the fee structure by the proposed rule was inevitable in order to recover the costs.
In the proposed fee structure three new fees are intended to be added. They include a fee for Applications on regional center designations under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, a fee for Applications on Civil Surgeon Designation, and a fee to recover the cost involved in processing immigrant visas granted by the Department of State. Further, as the processing costs are low, the processing fees for certain individual applications and petitions will be reduced.
The public views on the proposed rule can be posted through www.regulations.gov till July 26, 2010.