USCIS proposed price increase (Merged)

[Scandi 3,970]

2 hours ago, powerpuff said:

They want to charge $2,820 for I-485 with concurrently filed EAD and AP…. 130% increase. Yikes.  And they can’t even guarantee that EAD/AP will be issued well before GC. What is the point of those forms then? I, for example, received my GC several months before my EAD/AP were even looked at. 
 

USCIS complains that fee increases haven’t gone up in years which affects their productivity yet they propose such drastic and extreme increases without guaranteeing reasonable processing times. 

That's so insane, especially when you compare to how it used to be just a few years ago. I filed my i485 in 2016 (which isn't THAT long ago) and paid $985 in total for all three (AOS, AP, EAD and then an additional $85 for biometrics) - and that's also when EAD/AP "only" took 90-100 days, as compared to today's 9 months...

[Loren Y 2,732]

Anyone doing a CR-1 will definitely be waiting until the 2 year mark to enter. Unless the CR-1 processing times come down to like 6 months, then it may be worth the extra money to enter say 18 months earlier, but to save a few months maybe, forget it.

[Unlockable 7,306]

Wow. If this goes through it will hit a lot of people's pockets hard. The whole budget for K1 from the petition to ROC is going to be crazy. 


My pondering thoughts...

Is this an attempt to curb AOS from nonimmigrant visas? 

Is this an attempt to push more applicants towards the more superior spousal visa over the fiance visa?

Is there a shake up to bring processing times down?

[slavaskii 885]

As others have suggested, I definitely think there is a 'movement' brewing to phase out the K-1. The fact K-3 has virtually disappeared makes me think the utility of the K-class is no longer recognized by USCIS, and there is an even stronger push to spousal. Why the I-129F can't be filed online - and why there doesn't seem to be any hints of this happening - is also a giveaway for me. Paper filing is long and burdensome, especially with the 100+ pages applicants routinely file either because they (a) are overly cautious or (b) watched some YouTube video saying so. I simply think USCIS is saying "enough is enough."

 

Separately, this puts people already waiting for AOS in a really weird position. I would be very happy if these increases allowed my wife to get her EAD/AP and Green Card faster - especially because we already paid those fees, and because we weren't lucky to have one of those 'same-day' EAD/AP approvals. But as others have said, there's no guarantee that speeds will actually increase, and that removal hike is massive.

[Verrou 1,899]

perhaps there's reason why USCIS waived lotsa of interviews for less than 2 years marriage AOS. exactly for this. people are so excited and happy....perhaps 100% hike for ROC means small friction for them

Edited January 4, 2023 by Misscloud

[JeanneAdil 6,203]

5 hours ago, Unlockable said:

Wow. If this goes through it will hit a lot of people's pockets hard. The whole budget for K1 from the petition to ROC is going to be crazy. 


My pondering thoughts...

Is this an attempt to curb AOS from nonimmigrant visas? 

Is this an attempt to push more applicants towards the more superior spousal visa over the fiance visa?

Is there a shake up to bring processing times down?

i believe it is 

 

and to cut down the work of USCIS that is needed for the AOS 

[Kurt and Kristina 72]

<vent> All this amazing prompt service, and fee increases? Wow, how lucky we are!! </vent>

[Boiler 43,504]

It is just a money grab, they need the income for the millions of cases they have to handle that are charged little or nothing

[beloved_dingo 1,932]

You would think it'd be more logical to just say "starting on [x] date, all filing fees will increase 20%" (or whatever percentage makes sense), rather than picking and choosing certain forms to drastically increase filing fees for.

 

Which supports the thought that there is some other agenda involved rather than just increasing funding. 

[Demise 1,096]

They'll definitely get sued and it will likely get struck down. Those fee increases, especially considering that they want to make AOS based EAD/AP no longer free, are ridiculous. Like seriously, those things exist in the first place because they like to sit on AOS applications forever, they recently had to change them from 1 year validity to 2 year validity because of how long it takes them to approve an AOS.

 

They tried this same nonsense a while back and a court struck it down.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Demise

[JISnJRS 22]

19 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

looks like since the I 130 only goes up $15 and all the fees for fiancee including AOS  ( adjustment of status (green card) application costs would jump from the current $1,225 to $1,540.)

 

whew 😅

[milimelo 4,220]

Wow, that’s a big increase. Times have definitely changed. I doubt that K-1s will disappear given high volume K-1 embassies like Manila. I’ve always advocated for spousal visa, it just makes more sense and provides better options for beneficiary when it comes to work, travel, and definitely faster time to naturalization. 
 

(We had $190 - DCF I-130 in 2006, I think I-751 was under $400 in 2009, and N-400 in 2010 under $600? - been a while. Both I-751 and N-400 from start to finish in under 3 months Chicago field office. GC issuance was free (part of immigrant visa processing - perhaps a share of immigrant visa processing? but no way to know if you’ll ever get one in real life - I never got the first one and had to go congressional route to get it issued.)

[JISnJRS 22]

11 hours ago, Loren Y said:

Anyone doing a CR-1 will definitely be waiting until the 2 year mark to enter. Unless the CR-1 processing times come down to like 6 months, then it may be worth the extra money to enter say 18 months earlier, but to save a few months maybe, forget it.

We're going through the CR-1 process right now, I submitted the form in early Sept. 2022.  the guesstimate timeframe right now is Sept. 2023, just for the approval of the I-130 form. please correct me if I'm wrong..

 

A lot of times I suffer from CRS, Cant remember $*** 🤣

[Crazy Cat 39,312]

1 hour ago, beloved_dingo said:

You would think it'd be more logical to just say "starting on [x] date, all filing fees will increase 20%" (or whatever percentage makes sense), rather than picking and choosing certain forms to drastically increase filing fees for.

 

Which supports the thought that there is some other agenda involved rather than just increasing funding. 

Politics.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,079]

1 hour ago, Demise said:

They'll definitely get sued and it will likely get struck down. Those fee increases, especially considering that they want to make AOS based EAD/AP no longer free, are ridiculous. Like seriously, those things exist in the first place because they like to sit on AOS applications forever, they recently had to change them from 1 year validity to 2 year validity because of how long it takes them to approve an AOS.

I'm pretty sure that won't work this time. 

IIRC, the 2020 rule was struck down because the person in charge of DHS at the time was improperly holding the office.

At any rate, it was due to not following proper procedures, not because of the specifics of the plan.