According to the latest news from the U.S. Immigration Service, the immigration application fee has been determined to increase and will be officially implemented from April 1 this year!
USCIS has repeatedly proposed a price increase for filing fees, but for many reasons it has not been successfully implemented for many years.
However, in early January this year, the price increase plan was submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, and recently it was completed.
The price increase results are basically the same as the previous prediction, and the employment-based immigration categories will meet different degrees of price increases, among which the EB-5 investment immigration related forms (I-526, I-829, I-956, etc.) have the highest increase!
· I-956：
The regional center application increased from $17,795 for the original I-924 to $47,695, an increase of 168%.
· I-956F：
Pre-approval of the project, the fee is $47,695, an increase of 168%.
· I-956G:
The regional center's annual report rose from $3,035 for the original I-924A to $4,470, an increase of 47%.
Why did the EB-5 category go up so much? USCIS has also given an explanation:
1. USCIS needs to cover operating costs. As the number of U.S. immigration applications has increased year by year, USCIS staff costs have increased and the processing workload has increased. The EB-5 department has increased operating costs, which necessitates increased expenses;
2. Investors and regional centers have a stronger ability to pay. USCIS believes that EB-5 investors and regional centers are making large investments, and the greater the ability to pay, the greater the responsibility, and therefore the price increases.
In this notice, USCIS argues that the fee adjustment for the final regulations is also intended to provide a virtuous cycle for the immigration application process.
For the Government, the main benefits include a reduction in administrative burdens and fee processing errors, an increase in the efficiency of the trial process, and a better ability to assess the cost of providing services.
The main benefits for applicants include reducing fee processing errors, improving the efficiency of the adjudication process, streamlining the process of paying fees for certain forms, etc.