DHS Proposes Increased Fees for Visa Applications

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within  the Department of Homeland Security, recently issued a proposed rule that increases immigration request fees. According to the USCIS press release, “The proposed fee rule is the result of a comprehensive fee review at USCIS. That review determined that the agency’s current fees, which have remained unchanged since 2016, fall far short of recovering the full cost of agency operations. USCIS generally publishes a fee rule biennially and proposes these changes to account for the expansion of humanitarian programs, federally mandated pay raises, additional staffing requirements, and other essential investments.”

According to the immigration, legal, business, and higher education stakeholders, these changes will result in significant increases in visa fees, especially H-1B visas and employment-based green cards.