WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on January 31 that it plans to increase fees for naturalization applications by 80 percent. USCIS will raise fees for an adult’s application from $330 to $595, and a child’s from $255 to $460. These increases are examined by Julia Gelatt in an MPI Fact Sheet, "Immigration Fees in Context."
Highlights from the Fact Sheet show:
USCIS reports that the new fee increases are necessary to fully cover basic services as well as the move from a largely paper-based system to more efficient online processing -- measures that will become more important if an immigration reform bill is passed legalizing millions of immigrants or establishing a temporary worker program.
“The Congress has put USCIS between a rock and a hard place by forcing it to fund a wide range of government operations through fees charged to immigrant applicants,” saidMargie McHugh, co-director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. “There is widespread bipartisan agreement that lawful immigrants should adopt American values and fully join our society. Republicans and Democrats should be equally concerned that this fee increase will make it more difficult for immigrants to naturalize and therefore, consider more seriously an appropriation to make sure that becoming a citizen remains affordable."
The Fact Sheet is available online here.
Note: Text from two press releases has been combined here for clarity and ease of use.