Increase in US immigration fee likely

United States, 11th June: As per the latest announcement by the USCIS, an increase is likely in the US immigration fee.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) maintained that the fee hike by the department will be applicable with immediate effect.

In addition to the fees for US visas, the US immigration department also announced a likely increase in the application fees for US green cards. 

This increase will be introduced from the month of September 2010.

However, there will be no change in the application fees for US citizenship, said head of the USCIS, Alejandro Mayorkas to a news conference held in Washington,

The increase in the fees for US green cards leading to the status of permanent residency in the US is being done to make up for lost revenues.

So, after the changes, the new application fee for US green card will be $1,050, making a rise of $40 from the earlier fees. The new US green card fee includes fingerprinting fees. The present fee for US green cards is around $930.

Also, new fees for US family visa petitions will go up to $420 from the earlier fee of $355.

The proposed fee hike in the US immigration applications is being done for the second time in the last three years period by the federal immigration officials following a plunge in the total revenue for the agency due to lesser number of applications for the US visas due to global slowdown.

The proposed fee hike in the US visas by the US immigration will have a direct affect on several immigrants to the US including Central Americans needing employment authorization to get jobs in the US to newcomer Cuban migrants and Haitians.

The federal immigration officials decided not to introduce fee hikes for US citizenship applications after several immigrant advocates opposed such move. It may be mentioned that in 2007, citizenship fees for US had been increased by almost 70 percent going up to $675. Several immigrant advocates attribute this fee hike as the reason behind a significant decline in the number of US citizenship applicants over the period of last two years.