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Green Card Application Fees to Skyrocket Under New Proposal


The USCIS fee hike for nearly all immigration applications will go into effect April 1, 2024

Jan 31, 2023


Immigrant at the Oath of Allegiance Ceremony

Update as of January 31, 2024:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule finalizing a significant fee increase for various immigration applications. The new fees are set to take effect on April 1, 2024. Costs will go up for nearly every visa category, including family-based and employment-based immigration.

Updated Family-Immigration Fees at a Glance

  • Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), commonly used for marriage green cards, will go up 26% to $675 for paper filing, and $625 for online filing.
  • Form I-129F (Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)), part of the K-1 visa process, will increase from $535 to $675 (26%).
  • Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status), the green card application, will also go up 18% (from $1,225 to $1,440).

To calculate your 2024 USCIS fees and stay up to date on all fee hike news, check out Boundless’ guide.

When will these changes take effect?

With the completion of OIRA’s review, the publication of the final rule is imminent, and the new fees could be in effect as soon as spring 2024. Applications postmarked before the rule goes into effect will not be affected by the price increases,

For a full list of proposed fee changes and how much applicants can expect to pay for certain visa categories, go to Boundless’ USCIS fees guide.

Background

Originally, USCIS released a proposal in January 2023 to raise application fees for almost every immigrant category to the United States. The proposal included dramatic increases for both employment-based and family-based immigrant applications. For example, fees for many marriage-based green card applications, including the mandatory I-130 petition for a family member, were set to more than double from $1760 to over $3640. Additionally, fees for accompanying children were to be equivalent to adult applications, significantly increasing the costs for immigrant families.

The agency followed a mandated process under the Administrative Procedures Act, which involved a 60-day public comment period. The final rule, potentially adjusted based on public feedback, was to be published following this period.

During the public comment period however, the agency amassed more than 6,000 public comments, criticizing the proposed cost increases and the impact they could have on U.S. businesses, the workforce, and families. The fee increases will not go into effect until the final rule is published, and it’s unclear whether the agency will move forward with the fee increases it proposed in January, or if the final rule will be a modified version based on feedback from the public.

Information on this fee proposal is rapidly developing. Please turn on notifications to receive updates.


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