US immigration fees set to rise

Individuals wishing to make an application for US citizenship should do so now if they are able, as US Immigration and Naturalization Services’ fees are set to rise later in the year. The cost of applying for over three dozen different immigration applications will be going up in the fall. The comment period on the proposed fee increases has recently been closed by the Department of Homeland Security.

In some instances, the fee increases could be minimal but in others, they could be quite high. An example is that of the fee for a fiancé US visa application, which could be set to rise by as much as $195, with the full cost of having processed the Employment Based US visa to be recouped by one single new fee of $3035.

Other proposed changes to fees include a rise for citizenship or naturalization applications, with the Form N-400 standard filing fee for the latter set to increase by a possible eight percent from $595 to $640. Also, there could be a staggering 95 percent increase in the cost of the Application for Certificate of Citizenship, which would see the cost rise from the current fee of $600 to as much as $1170.

The Certificate of Citizenship is sometimes regarded as an optional form, yet it can be important if someone wants to put in applications for different benefits such as Social Security, financial aid, passport renewals and driver’s licenses.