New proposal will increase costs of immigration application fees

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Those applying to change their immigration status may see an increase in their application fees.

“The prices actually increased quite a bit. It was not something small, it is a very high cost and I have to put more effort in many aspects” says Daniel Zambrando, a client of lawyer Pace Rawlins and who’s also affected by this new increase.

Zambrando was recently in the process of updating his immigration status when his lawyer informed him of a raise in his application fee.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, there will be an increase in certain applications such as visas, green cards, and citizenships.

Zambrando mentioned that the announcement was not something he was anticipating.

“I reacted in a not-so-positive way because I already had my finances planned out for the future, so this news took me by surprise,” mentioned Zambrando.

Immigration lawyer Pace Rawlins mentions this increase could help the organization since there hasn’t been an increase in fees since 2016.

“They want to try and reduce the backlogs that we’ve seen coming out of COVID by being able to employ more officers, better training, better technology, to help move these cases along,” says Pace Rawlins, an immigration lawyer.

This increase won’t go into effect until March. That will give people time to comment on it, through a public forum.

“Right now we are in the middle of a 60-day public comment period under the federal regulation where you can go and have your voice heard,” mentioned Rawlins.

For more information on what types of applications will be impacted and how you can make a comment on this new proposal, click here.