USCIS proposes increasing application fees by 21% or more

[Deagle 494]

Higher fees should come with better service and faster processing times. 

[Deagle 494]

I think USCIS should increase the fees just a little bit for the standard processing so they can make some profit and not lose money, but they should also start premium processing for most of the petitions.

N400 for example, to reach the  Naturalization stage, that means the petitioner has lived in the US for a while and they should know everything about this person, or at least know about more than people who are applying for AOS. Therefore, processing time should be shorter. They should offer premium processing (2-4 months guaranteed) for $2,500 or $3000. This way they can make big profit from the people who can afford to pay big. Just like airlines, all passengers will get to board the airplane, but not everyone can afford first class tickets.

[Philly2017 35]

15 minutes ago, Deagle said:

Higher fees should come with better service and faster processing times. 

I agree.  That’s their goal as well.  

 

The fee review:  Allows for an assessment of USCIS policy changes, staffing levels, costs, revenue, etc. USCIS evaluates operational requirements and makes informed decisions concerning program scaling, resource planning, and staffing allocations;

 

4 minutes ago, Deagle said:

I think USCIS should increase the fees just a little bit for the standard processing so they can make some profit and not lose money, but they should also start premium processing for most of the petitions.

N400 for example, to reach the  Naturalization stage, that means the petitioner has lived in the US for a while and they should know everything about this person, or at least know about more than people who are applying for AOS. Therefore, processing time should be shorter. They should offer premium processing (2-4 months guaranteed) for $2,500 or $3000. This way they can make big profit from the people who can afford to pay big. Just like airlines, all passengers will get to board the airplane, but not everyone can afford first class tickets.

That would be ideal!  But it seems that 

Congress established the premium processing service for “employment-based petitions and applications.”

 

Also, 

Commenters regularly request that DHS extend premium processing to other immigration benefit requests.  Nevertheless, it would be difficult to estimate the staff, resources, and costs necessary to ensure the processing of additional benefit types within a certain time frame, especially when those cases may require other types of background checks, interviews, and additional steps that USCIS does not generally control. Expanding the premium processing program would require USCIS to estimate the costs of a service that does not currently exist with sufficient confidence that it can deliver the service promised and not impair service in other product lines. DHS would require the devotion of considerable resources to study a potential new premium processing program. 

[Deagle 494]

24 minutes ago, NYCQueens2017 said:

 

 Nevertheless, it would be difficult to estimate the staff, resources, and costs necessary to ensure the processing of additional benefit types within a certain time frame, especially when those cases may require other types of background checks, interviews, and additional steps that USCIS does not generally control. 

 

I find this hard to believe. I think that every petition required background check. I mean, are they saying that "employment-based petitions" doesn't require background checks? I mean N400 should really be the fastest petition since the applicant has been in the country for either 3 or 5 years. They have all the info they need plus a trial period lol.

[Lemonslice 4,549]

Hopefully, k1 will become less attractive. Too many people are already ignoring the AOS cost and unable to file in a timely manner. 

[Karim2018 99]

1 hour ago, Deagle said:

Higher fees should come with better service and faster processing times. 

In the private sector maybe, but in GOV, that's called wishful thinking!

[geowrian 22,335]

1 hour ago, Deagle said:

I think USCIS should increase the fees just a little bit for the standard processing so they can make some profit and not lose money, but they should also start premium processing for most of the petitions.

N400 for example, to reach the  Naturalization stage, that means the petitioner has lived in the US for a while and they should know everything about this person, or at least know about more than people who are applying for AOS. Therefore, processing time should be shorter. They should offer premium processing (2-4 months guaranteed) for $2,500 or $3000. This way they can make big profit from the people who can afford to pay big. Just like airlines, all passengers will get to board the airplane, but not everyone can afford first class tickets.

The reason why premium processing has a value/meaning is because it only applies to categories that are strictly limited in number. There are not an unlimited number of petitions available for premium processing. They can anticipate the work load and have the right number of people for that task beforehand.

Opening that up for family-based petitions, ROC, naturalization, etc. would likely just result in paying a larger fee to effectively wait in the same line with the vast majority of applicants.

Edited November 11, 2019 by geowrian

[Deagle 494]

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

The reason why premium processing has a value/meaning is because it only applies to categories that are strictly limited in number. There are not an unlimited number of petitions available for premium processing. They can anticipate the work load and have the right number of people for that task beforehand.

Opening that up for family-based petitions, ROC, naturalization, etc. would likely just result in paying a larger fee to effectively wait in the same line with the vast majority of applicants.

Higher fees = more money = more employees.

[geowrian 22,335]

9 minutes ago, Deagle said:

Higher fees = more money = more employees.

So....just increase the fees massively for everybody and they can hire more people to make it go faster?

There are technical challenges with this approach. The reason it take so long right now is because of the backlog, not really so much because of ongoing petitions. The latest stats I've seen (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports and Studies/Immigration Forms Data/All Form Types/Quarterly_All_Forms_FY19Q3.pdf) show they are processing roughly as many new forms as they are taking in, and sometimes more than they are taking in. Hiring a bunch of people to go through this would only be a temporary piece - once they get through the backlog, there's very little for them to do. And the lead time for hiring people (based on previous posts from a former IO) is several months before they can even take on the first form. It's hard to find a workforce to train for that long for a position that may only be around for several months then have little to do.

 

The main issue, IMHO, is lack of planning in most cases. They are always slow to respond to changes in workloads, and have no planning for anything unexpected. That's why have such large backlogs in the first place, which is the real issue...not so much their ability to handle the current processing load.

Edited November 11, 2019 by geowrian

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

19 minutes ago, geowrian said:

The reason why premium processing has a value/meaning is because it only applies to categories that are strictly limited in number. There are not an unlimited number of petitions available for premium processing. They can anticipate the work load and have the right number of people for that task beforehand.

Opening that up for family-based petitions, ROC, naturalization, etc. would likely just result in paying a larger fee to effectively wait in the same line with the vast majority of applicants.

My thoughts exactly. If that happens, essentially a large enough number of people will be able to pay for PP that it will make it "not premium" anymore.

[Philly2017 35]

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

The main issue, IMHO, is lack of planning in most cases. They are always slow to respond to changes in workloads, and have no planning for anything unexpected. That's why have such large backlogs in the first place, which is the real issue...not so much their ability to handle the current processing load.

I tend to agree with your view.  They are constantly behind the curve.  If you check the fees that were in place back in the 90’s ($150-$250 approx.) for petitions such as AOS, ROC, EAD, N-400 etc., compared to the fees that are in place today/will be in place in a few months, the increase is insane.  However, even the fact that more employees were hired by USCIS, the backlog increased tremendously, as petitions back then were adjudicated in just a couple months time.  

[Carpe Vinum 2,308]

2 hours ago, Deagle said:

Higher fees should come with better service and faster processing times. 

We are not laughing at you. We are laughing from keeping from crying....

[Carpe Vinum 2,308]

1 hour ago, Lemonslice said:

Hopefully, k1 will become less attractive. Too many people are already ignoring the AOS cost and unable to file in a timely manner. 

I would think this would reduce the number of economically challenged filers...

[Philly2017 35]

To put it in context, take a look at the CRS Report for Congress (dated 6/12/2007).

 

Page CRS-19 states historical fees (1994-2004) for selected immigration benefits, while pages CRS-38 to CRS-39 show the processing times and completions rates as of 2007.  

 

Comparing this piece of information to today’s processing times and tomorrow’s proposed fees, indicates that the fee level (or more staff) is inversely correlated to the processing times.  Someone could say that, this pattern shows that other issues should be concurrently addressed to resolve the backlog problem.

 

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1984.pdf

 

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,078]

2 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

Hopefully, k1 will become less attractive. Too many people are already ignoring the AOS cost and unable to file in a timely manner. 

There are already far more IR-1/CR-1s filed than K-1s, and that's not even figuring in AOS from non-K visas.