U.S. Citizen and Immigration services increasing filing fees
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- For the first time in 7 years U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services is increasing its fees. This final rule went into effect April the 1st. "People, you know, they. They they don't have too much money. You know, it's going to be a hard for everyone." said Fransisco Valencia, a U.S citizen. But people hoping to become one will now have to pay more. The USCIS website says it increased fees to "recover operating costs more fully and support timely processing of new applications."
Diego Vazquez, immigration lawyer says "USCIS needs more money to be able to process more cases. There's been a higher influx of cases. So that's why it happened." The USCIS website also states "they are almost entirely fee funded. unlike other federal agencies, about 96% of their funding is from filing fees." "Low income, low income families. That's what's going to be affected. The good thing is that it wasn't that much of an increase," said Diego Vazquez, immigration lawyer.
The new fees also affect employment-based visas. An El Paso store owner says many of his workers will be impacted: "I do help them out be able to get them and cover some of the costs but because I'm an specific scenario I can't guarantee other people would be in the same circumstance but for the general I don't think it's very easy to cover extra costs," said Humberto Lopez.
Diego Vazquez, says some fees have slightly decreased in cost, but he suggested a solution for people who can't afford to pay the news fees. "I'm requesting a waiver and others will determine whether they give it to you or they don't," said Vazquez. The waivers can be granted if you can show proof of economic hardship. And there is also a 50 dollar discount for U.S. Citizenship applications if you apply online. For more information and details about the exact fees go to https://www.uscis.gov/.
