Trump wants to nearly double US citizenship application fees
The Trump administration is considering raising the cost of U.S. citizenship applications, according to a Department of Homeland Security rule filed on Friday.
The fee for the U.S. citizenship application would increase to $1,170 – from $640, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
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A number of other cost increases were proposed, as well as the addition of a $50 fee for asylum applications.
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According to the document, a biennial fee review determined that current fees “do not recover the full costs of providing adjudication and naturalization services” at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Without an increase in funding, the government predicts the agency would experience an average annual shortfall of $1.2 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed adjusting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration fees “by a weighted average increase of 21 percent,” in addition to adding fees for some benefit requests. U.S. immigration services is primarily funded by fees charged to applicants and petitioners.
Written comments must be submitted within 30 days from the date the rule is published in the federal register, which will be on Thursday.
The last time the fee schedule was adjusted was at the end of 2016.