The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) which is responsible for the adjudication of most immigration applications filed by aliens who are not in Removal Proceedings before an Immigration Judge, will be raising its form filing fees as of November 23, 2010. This fee increase will raise the average application and petition fees by approximately 10% - a significant bump in filing fees which have already seen considerable increases in the past several years. It should be noted that the final fee increase rule has actually reduced fees for six applications.
There is always a concern that increases in filing fees by the Government will price aliens out of their ability to apply for immigration benefits. However, we have found that USCIS with its fee increases have implemented meaningful improvements in the actual services they provide and even in the time it may take to adjudicate the petitions and applications themselves. Innovations such as Info-Pass have greatly assisted aliens and attorneys alike in navigating the labyrinth that is the Immigration Service. Further, many of the benefits the aliens themselves seek are invaluable and their actual worth far in excess of the fees aliens pay the Government and their attorneys. We are hoping however, that this latest fee increase will represent the last UCSIS forms-related fee increase in a very long while.
To read more about these fee increases please go to: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/template.PRINT/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f61
By: Duane Hamilton
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