US Immigration Citizen and Immigration Services’ proposal to significantly increase filing fees for many employment-based petitions would particularly affect long-term care providers, the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living told the McKnight’s Business Daily Thursday.
“We are disappointed in this proposed fee increase as our long-term care providers are already experiencing a dire workforce and economic crisis. We hope that the USCIS will take into consideration long-term care facilities that rely heavily on immigrants to care for their residents as well as fixed government resources,” ACHA/NCAL said.
“As we continue to face a historic workforce crisis, we need policymakers to expand and expedite opportunities for healthcare workers who wish to live and work in the United States, especially those who are willing to care for our nation’s seniors,” the associations added.
Under the proposed rule that USCIS announced Jan. 3, one of the key changes would be an increase in the H-1B cap registration fee from its current $10 to $215. That’s an increase of more than 2,000%, law firm Fisher Phillips noted. Assuming the number of H-1B registrations remains the same, employers collectively would pay about $100 million more a year for those registrations, the attorneys at Fisher Phillips said.
The $10 per-beneficiary registration fee for H-1B petitions went into effect in 2019 when USCIS “lacked sufficient data to precisely estimate the costs of the registration process,” according to the agency. The fee was implemented “to provide an initial stream of revenue to fund part of the costs to USCIS of operating the registration program,” USCIS said.
Other proposed immigration fees increases:
- H-1B filing fee: $780 (an approximately 70% increase);
- L-1 filing fee: $1,385 (an approximately 200% increase);
- E and TN filing fee: $1,015 (an approximately 120% increase);
- I-485 application for adjustment of status: $1,540 (an approximately 35% increase);
- Petition by investor to remove conditions on permanent residence: $9,525 (an approximately 150% increase); and
- An additional $600 “asylum program fee” for certain I-129 nonimmigrant petitions and I-140 immigrant petitions, further increasing the proposed costs for those petitions.
“In addition to improving customer service operations and managing the incoming workload, USCIS must continue to fulfill our growing humanitarian mission, upholding fairness, integrity and respect for all we serve,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said. “This proposed rule allows USCIS to more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years and will support the administration’s effort to rebuild the legal immigration system.”
The public comment period began Jan. 4 and will continue through March 6, as required by law. See the Federal Register publication for more information.
