New USCIS Fees on April 1, 2024

On January 31st, USCIS published a new fee schedule, which will take effect on April 1, 2024, and significantly impact most employment-based petitions. Most notably, the new fee schedule will add a mandatory Asylum Program Fee to every Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, filed by for-profit employers.

What is the Asylum Program Fee?

It is an additional fee that USCIS is charging to U.S. employers in order to “fund part of the cost of administering the entire asylum process” which are estimated by the Agency to cost over $400 million per year. (89 FR 6208).

USCIS “determined that the Asylum Program Fee is an effective way to shift some costs to…petitioners who have more ability to pay”--in other words, U.S. employers who wish to sponsor foreign nationals for temporary (I-129) or permanent (I-140) employment in the United States. (89 FR 6208).

In other words, because Congress cannot figure out how to effectively fund the asylum process so that USCIS can properly administer and manage it, which has resulted in a backlog of more than 3 million cases, USCIS has in turn decided to tax U.S. employers in order to fund the asylum program.

What does this mean for U.S. employers?

Below is a chart of the new USCIS filing fees, by process, that must be paid beginning April 1, 2024.

If Employers have H, L, O, E, TN or I-140 petitions that can be filed before April 1, 2024, then they should do so in order to save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Any cases that will be filed with USCIS on or after April 1, 2024, must include the new filing fees. Failure to file with the proper filing fees will result in the case being rejected.

Employers should take particular care in ensuring the proper filing fees with this year’s H-1B cap petitions, which must be filed after April 1, 2024. USCIS is often delayed in issuing receipt notices for cap cases, and it can take 6 weeks or longer to receive confirmation that a petition has been accepted or rejected. If the wrong filing fees are used and the H-1B cap petition is rejected, the Employer may not find out until after the filing period has expired, which means that the prospective employee will lose their opportunity for an H-1B in Fiscal Year 2025 and will need to be entered into the lottery for Fiscal Year 2026.