USCIS Proposes Filing Fee Increases 4/4/16

Posted May 4, 2016

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed rule today May 4, 2016 proposing to increase filing fees for many immigration forms.  Click here to see the proposed rule and summary of increases at Table 9.

The proposed fee increases would be particularly dramatic for several EB-5 forms:

EB-5  Form        Current Filing Fee       Proposed Filing Fee

I-526                        $1,500                             $3,675
I-829                        $3,750                             $3,750
I-924                        $6,230                             $17,795
I-924A                     no fee                              $3,035

The ELIS Immigrant Fee and I-485 fee would also see modest increases. USCIS will allow public comment until July 5 on the proposed fees.  The agency will then need to evaluate comments received before it publishes a final rule and new fees take effect.  All that takes time.  Therefore, we predict that any fee increases will not become effective until late fall 2016 at the earliest.

The May 4, 2016 proposed rule does not include raising the minimum EB-5 investment amount above $500,000.  USCIS will issue a separate proposed rule if it proposes to do that.