On August 3, 2020, USCIS confirmed that they would significantly overhaul their fee system. After months of dialogue, USCIS published the Final Rule which will take effect on October 2, 2020. These changes were instituted to ensure that USCIS will remain financially solvent through the economic downturn.
The changes adjust fees by a weighted average increase of 20 percent, add various new fees, establish multiple fees for nonimmigrant worker petitions, and limit the number of beneficiaries for certain forms. The rule also removes certain fee exemptions, changes fee waiver requirements, changes premium processing time limits, and alters certain intercountry adoption processes.
Key Aspects of the Rule:
Our law office fears that these changes will have devastating effects on the immigrant communities we serve. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and an unprecedented economic collapse. Immigrant communities, already, are inequitably impacted by these forces. These increased fees, and the financial burdens they bring, will only exacerbate their precarious financial positions.
We condemn the fee change, and the deliberate financial mismanagement of our federal government that has led us to this. We urge our federal government to fully fund USCIS, so that the administration is no longer dependent on the predatory, fee-based funding model.