New USCIS Fee Increase Blocked by Federal Court

A Federal Judge in the Northern District of California has issued an injunction blocking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from implementing a new immigration application fee rule, which was scheduled to become effective on October 2, 2020.

The ruling stops DHS temporarily from enforcing the rule while a lawsuit challenging the rule continues to be litigated in court. The ruling was based on a finding that the plaintiffs in the litigation are likely to succeed in their challenge to the fee rule because Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was improperly appointed to his position, and thus did not have the proper authorization to issue the new fee rule.

If it becomes effective, the new fee rule would increase costs significantly for most employment-based petitioners and applicants and require them to use new application forms. The fee rule would also increase the premium processing timeline from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.

DHS is expected to appeal this injunction.

What this Means

For as long as this injunction remains active (which is unknown at this time), employers and individuals filing immigration applications with USCIS should continue to include government filing fees from the current USCIS fee schedule.

Ellis Porter will continue to monitor the status of this injunction closely and provide updates as they become available.