U.S. businesses, educational institutions, and health systems that use foreign workers expressed concern over proposed fee increases from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS has not successfully updated its fees since 2016, but the latest proposal seeks to shift the ongoing cost of USCIS’s humanitarian mission to employers. Specifically, much of the proposed increase for employment-based visas is driven by a $600 asylum program fee on any Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker (Form I-129) and Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers (Form I-140). The Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker covers a number of temporary visa classifications, including the H-1Bs, Es, Ls, Os, and TNs, and the new fee would apply to initial petitions and extensions alike.
Those fee increases, if finalized, could have a significant impact on small businesses, nonprofits, and educational institutions that hire employees particularly on H-1B specialty occupation visas or sponsor workers for green cards. USCIS is mainly funded by its application fees rather than appropriations and has stated that the increases are necessary for maintaining the agency’s operations at a time of increased migration to the U.S.
The proposed fee increases are open to public comment through March 6, 2023.