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Immigration News: Federal Judge Halts USCIS Fee Increases

by | Sep 30, 2020 | Immigration, News

This is an update to our previous blog post: https://www.hirsonimmigration.com/blog/2020/09/immigration-news-public-charge-rule-update-from-uscis/

On September 29, 2020, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White from the Northern District of California enjoined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s rule to raise immigration application fees shortly before the rule was set to go into effect on Friday, October 2, 2020. The injunction applies nationwide. See Immigrant Legal Resource Center et al. v. Wolf et al., case number 4:20-cv-05883.

In ruling on the injunction, Judge White found that Acting Homeland Security Chief Chad Wolf was likely improperly appointed to his position, making the rule invalid. Under this new fee rule, many application fees were set to increase substantially. Most notably, the application for naturalization was set to increase from $640 to $1,160, making the prospect of U.S. citizenship for many financially out of reach. Based on this ruling, the current USCIS application fees will continue to apply until a final decision is reached in the case.