USCIS Issues Q&A on New Fee Schedule; Makes Corrections, Clarifications
The new fee schedule for immigration-related applications and petitions took effect on November 23, 2010. Applications or petitions postmarked or otherwise filed on or after this date must include the new fee or they will be rejected.
USCIS published the new fee schedule in the Federal Register on September 24, 2010, following a review of public comments received after publication of the proposed rule this past summer. The new fee schedule increases application and petition fees by an average of about 10 percent but does not increase the naturalization application fee.
USCIS issued a related Q&A that notes, among other things, that if mailed through a courier service, the date the item is entered into the courier’s service system is considered the postmark date.
Meanwhile, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported on November 19, 2010, that USCIS has confirmed that a receipt notice from a courier service or overnight mailing service will be considered a “postmark” for fee determination purposes.
USCIS has also corrected the new fee for refugee travel documents. As discussed in the preamble to the final rule, the agency had determined that the fee for a refugee travel document for an adult age 16 or older should match the fee charged for the issuance of a passport to a U.S. citizen ($110 plus a $25 execution fee). Accordingly, USCIS intended to reduce the fee for filing an Application for Travel Document, Form I-131, for refugees to $135 for an adult age 16 or older. The final rule inadvertently listed a fee of $165 for the I-131 refugee travel document for an adult age 16 or older. No other changes were made under this correction.
A table listing the old and new fees is available here as PDF.
