VOA News | Wednesday, February 28, 2024 
US Announces Fee Increases for Immigration, Naturalization Petitions

Washington — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is increasing certain immigration and naturalization fees for the first time since 2016. The change will be in effect April 1. The increases affect employment-based petitions, family-based immigration applications, and U.S. naturalization cases. Per U.S. immigration law, USCIS is required to revise its fee structure every two years. “After leaving these fees unchanged for the three years following passage of the [USCIS Stabilization] Act, [the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS] is now increasing the premium processing fees USCIS charges for all eligible forms and categories to reflect the amount of inflation from June 2021 through June 2023,” according to a USCIS statement. Nearly 96% of operations conducted by USCIS, and agency of DHS, rely primarily on user fees. The key changes are for the H-1B visa, a category that allows 85,000 highly skilled foreigners to come to the U.S. to work for at least three years. Its registration fee will increase from $10 to $215 per registration and is to take effect in March 2025 for the fiscal 2026 season and subsequent years. The employers pay these fees. According to the immigration agency, the goal is to align fees with the…Read more