Revised Immigration Fees - Point to Note

[chris]

Most of you know - I hope - that effective Junly 30, 2007 the lovely USCIS are putting their prices up. Whilst you can find all the new fee increases by visiting the USCIS website, I wanted to point out to anyone on E visa that is landlocked and has to extend status by filing I-129 and I-539 for their dependants, that if their forms need renewing within 60 days of the 30 July you may want to file in good time and save some money. The increases are not peanuts, but then the extra money will no doubt be spent to help the impoverished illegal - but there we go.
Here are the current fees and the new ones - Ouch!
I-129 Current $190.00. From July 30 - $320.00
I-539 Current $200.00. From July 30 - $300.00

Remember the latter is per member of your family, so for me it's a new extra amount of $530.00. Oh the joys of living here:fit: :fit: :fit: :fit:

[McSporran]

Hi Chris,

Forgive me cos I'm definately not the expert on this - but I thought when our friends filed an I-539 - they only paid one lot of filing fees - this wasn;t payable per person (they have 3 children...so I'm sure they would have said if they'd paid $800.00 - i.e. Mum & 3 kids).

Am I understanding this wrong? :confused:

[chris]

McSporran,
You're absolutely right and my mistake. The I-539 fee covers spouse and dependants, so there is only the one I-539 filing fee to be paid. The new cost is $620.00 ( 1 x I-129 + 1 x I-539) compared to $390.00 as of now. It's still going to be a $230.00 increase for those landlocked with dependants. Still a cheek IMHO.

[Sharon]

do not think any of us would mind paying higher fees if this made them employ more staff and get our renewals done in a timely fashion

[McSporran]

McSporran,
You're absolutely right and my mistake. The I-539 fee covers spouse and dependants, so there is only the one I-539 filing fee to be paid. The new cost is $620.00 ( 1 x I-129 + 1 x I-539) compared to $390.00 as of now. It's still going to be a $230.00 increase for those landlocked with dependants. Still a cheek IMHO.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for clearing that up for me...I thought my friends would be shouting alot louder if the first had been the case...do I certainly do agree that the fees increase is a cheek and certainly not in line with an improvement in service.

Althought - Sharon - I think you're thinking of London - and E-2 status renewals seem to be coming back quickly from USCIS I think (of course I may be mistaken with if people are paying premium processing)??? But I certainly agree with the senitment - that an increase in anyone's fees should lead to better service...unfortunately it rarely does.