January 18, 2024

New Immigration Fee Changes: Premium Processing Fees to Increase in February; USCIS Proposed Increases to Additional Filing Fees

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On December 27, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that premium processing fees related to employment-based visa and green card petitions will increase as of February 26, 2024. USCIS will reject any premium processing requests postmarked on or after February 26, 2024.

As part of the announcement, USCIS noted that the additional revenue generated by these fee increases will be utilized to:

Provide premium processing services;
Make improvements to adjudications processes;
Respond to adjudication demands, including reducing benefit request processing backlogs; and
Fund USCIS adjudication and naturalization services.

Below are the applicable new premium processing fees:

Visa Category	New Premium Processing Fee
E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-3, L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1, TN-1, and TN-2	$2,805.00 (currently is $2,500.00)
H-2B and R-1	$1,685.00 (currently is $1,500.00)
Employment Based Green Card Petitions (E11, E12, E21 (non-NIW), E31, E32, EW3, E13 and E21 (NIW))	$2,805.00 (currently is $2,500.00)
Change of Nonimmigrant Status (F-1, F-2, M-1, M-2, J-1, J-2, E-1, E-2, E-3, L-2, H-4, O-3, P-4, and R-2)	$1,965.00 (currently is $1,750.00)
Application for Employment Authorization for certain F-1 students (C03A, C03B, C03C)	$1,685.00 (currently is $1,500.00)

Proposed USCIS Fees Increases Under Consideration

In January 2023, USCIS announced a series of proposed filing fees increases, which it is set to implement in 2024. The effective dates are expected to be announced in April 2024.

The proposed increases include:

Visa Category	Proposed Fee
H-1B (Form I-129)	$780.00 (currently is $460.00)
L (Form I-129)	$1,385.00 (currently is $460.00)
E and TN (I-129)	$1,015.00 (currently is $460.00)
O (I-129)	$1,055.00 (currently is $460.00)
H-3, P, Q, and R	$1,015.00 (currently is $460.00)
H-1B Electronic Registration Fee	$215.00 (currently is $10.00)
I-140 Immigrant Petitions (all)	$715.00 (currently is $700.00)

Please note that USCIS is also considering adding a $600.00 Asylum Program Fee to each of these proposed fees.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.