USCIS Fee Increase Blocked

USCIS was planning to increase some of its fees recently, something that wouldn’t have been so advantageous for people with smaller incomes. However, a federal district court issued a nationwide injunction on September 29, 2020, one that doesn’t allow USCIS to increase the fees for now. The fees were initially set to increase on October 2.

But why does USCIS want to increase fees in the first place? More importantly, why was the process blocked? You can find out more in this article if you keep reading.

Why Were USCIS Fees Set to Increase?

A few months ago, USCIS announced that they were going to increase some of their fees. But why is that? Why would they increase the fees during these hard times, when so many people are losing their jobs and struggling to support their families?

Well, that’s because USCIS is a fee-funded government agency. That being said, it needs the funds obtained from fees in order to run properly. To give you a little background information, about 97% of USCIS’s budget comes from the fees collected and deposited into the Immigration Examinations Fee Account.

The federal law required USCIS to perform a comprehensive biennial fee review. As a result, they discovered that the fees they currently have are not enough and that they cannot recover the cost of offering naturalization and adjudication services.

Therefore, they needed an increase to be able to recover all the operational costs so they can keep running just like before. DHS helped USCIS adjust the fees, and they came down to a 20% increase. If the current fees are kept in place, then the agency would be underfunded by around $1 billion every year.

If the fees increase, then the money can be used to detect and eliminate immigration fraud, adjudicate immigration benefit requests, and for vet applicants, beneficiaries, and petitioners. What’s more, doing this could be used to support payroll. This is something that would help USCIS fulfill its goal.

Additionally, the rule could add a few nominal fees for asylum applicants, remove some fee exemptions, as well as decrease fee waivers in order to help recover the adjudication costs. The rule would also encourage people to use online filing. This would provide a reduction of $10 for those who file online and thus submit forms that are electronically available on the USCIS site.

Joseph Edlow, who is a USCIS deputy director for policy, spoke about the fee increase. “USCIS is required to examine incoming and outgoing expenditures and make adjustments based on that analysis,” he said. “These overdue adjustments in fees are necessary to efficiently and fairly administer our nation’s lawful immigration system, secure the homeland, and protect Americans.”

As such, the final rule was about to apply from October 2, 2020. However, the fee increase has been blocked for now.

Why Did the Federal Court Block the Fee Increase?

The fee increase has been blocked by Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. He did it because, apparently, the acting Homeland Security secretaries were not lawfully appointed. As such, the argument was that the secretaries were not people who had the authority to make the decision. This is why the situation raised a lot of questions about whether the fee increase is valid or not. Besides, he considers that immigrants with a worse financial situation, such as those with a lower income, will be at a huge disadvantage when facing the new fees.

“The Defendants’ belief about the price elasticity of demand for immigration services leads to another of Plaintiffs’ larger arguments about why the Final Rule is arbitrary and capricious: the failure to consider important aspects of the problem, including the negative impact the rule will have on low-income immigrant populations,” said Judge White. “Plaintiffs note that Defendants’ reliance on statistics or data following prior fee increases is not a fair comparison because the Final Rule combines increases with a correspondent decrease in the ability to obtain waivers of fees, a variable not relevant to past fee changes. The Court agrees with that assessment.”

The rule that was about to apply on October 2 would have added a citizenship fee increase of over 60%. This would bring the citizenship cost from $725 to $1,170. Also, the green card costs would be even worse. While a green card is usually $1,760, the increase would bring it to $2,830. That’s too much and someone who is on a budget would have a hard time trying to obtain a green card or apply for citizenship.

According to USCIS, these fees are needed in order to keep the system running properly. However, Judge White wrote about the situation showing the flaw of the fee increase situation.

“Plaintiffs persuasively argue that the public interest would be served by enjoining or stating the effective date of the Final Rule because if it takes effect, it will prevent vulnerable and low-income applicants from applying for immigration benefits, will block access to humanitarian protections, and will expose those populations to further danger.” Judge White wrote.

Considering the fees are not going to be increased thanks to the block, immigrants and immigration advocates are very happy. After all, they criticized the fee increases and they considered everything an obstacle in any immigrant’s way while on the road to obtaining a green card or any immigration right.

When Will USCIS Fee Increase Now?

The final version of the rule was published back in August. But the same month, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, as well as other nonprofit organizations, tried their best to stop the fee increase from happening. As such, they filed suit to block this new rule from applying.

However, Judge White didn’t rule on the merits of the case. Instead, he offered an injunction. This would stop the rule from applying right now, and the block will apply for the entire litigation process.

The fee increase rule will thus not take effect, not while the injunction applies.

What Happens Next?

Now that the injunction is in place and the fee increase has been blocked, the government will not just leave things like this and risk the injunction being lifted. Most likely, they are going to appeal to the Ninth Circuit court, and thus obtain a stay of the injunction in place. However, things are not certain at the moment, so it’s hard to tell how long it will take, as well as what will happen in the end.

Conclusion

The USCIS fee increase may be necessary for the agency to keep its operations running in optimal condition, but it’s also a bad thing for people who don’t have the financial status that allows them to pay the fees. The fees may have already been a little too much for some immigrants, but with the fee increase, it would be even worse.

For now, at least, the increase has been blocked and the fees will remain the same while the injunction is in place. It’s hard to say what will happen in the future, though.

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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