The Shpigler Law Firm, LLC

The DACA program, which protects many young people from deportation and enables them to obtain work permits, has been completely reinstated.

The USCIS fee increase that was scheduled to take effect on October 2, 2020 has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

USCIS intends to expand its collection of personal information on noncitizens, including green card holders.

, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule on August 3, 2020 that will significantly increase most filing fees. The rule also removes certain fee exemptions, changes fee waiver requirements, increases premium processing time limits, and alters intercountry adoption processing. The changes will take effect on October 2, 2020. The final rule increases USCIS fees by a weighted average o...f 20 percent. It adds new fees for certain types of benefit requests, establishes individual fees that vary for certain nonimmigrant petitions, depending on the petition type, and limits the number of beneficiaries who may be included in certain other petitions. Here are some of the key changes that are included in the final rule: Adjustment of status: Removes the reduced Form I-485 filing fee for children under the age of 14 who are filing with a parent. The new filing fee for all applicants is $1,130. In addition, applicants must now pay separate filing fees for Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization) and Form I-131 (Application for Advance Parole). The I-765 filing fee for this category will be $550, and the I-131 filing fee will be $590. As a result, the total cost of applying for adjustment of status will more than double, to $2,270 (previously, it was $1,225). Naturalization: Increases the filing fee for naturalization (citizenship) from $640 to $1,170. This is an increase of 83 percent. Fee Waivers: Limits fee waivers to immigration benefit requests for which USCIS is required to consider the request, or where the USCIS Director exercises favorable discretion, as provided in the relevant regulation (such as self-petitioning VAWA applicants, special immigrant juveniles, and certain Afghans and Iraqis). Premium Processing: Increases the amount of time that USCIS has to respond to requests for premium processing from 15 calendar days to 15 business days. Asylum: Creates a new $50 filing fee for Form I-589, the application for asylum. Biometrics: Adds a $30 biometrics fee for TPS initial applicants and re-registrants, along with asylum applicants and long-term CNMI residents filing a Form I-765. Removes the $85 biometrics fee for most other applications. Electronic Filing: Changes the fee structure so that the fee for forms that may be filed online will be $10 lower than the fee for a paper filing. Employment-based Nonimmigrants: The final rule creates separate fees and forms for each visa classification filed on Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. This is the form used to file petitions for H-1B, H-2A and H-2B workers, as well as L, O, P, E and TN workers, among others. In addition, USCIS will now limit the number of named beneficiaries to 25 per petition for H-2A, H-2B, O-2, P, Q, E, and TN workers.

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