NEWSFLASH : INS Reduces Filing Fees Effective Jan. 24, 2003
Posted Jan 27, 2003

Effective January 24, 2003, the INS has reduced its filing fees on many applications and petitions. This fee reduction is due to the Department of Homeland Security Act instructing the Immigration and Naturalization Service to no longer collect that portion of fees which had been previously collected to fund asylum and refugee services and certain fee waiver and exemption programs. As a result, in an unusual move, INS fees have been reduced for most applications and petitions by up to 25 per cent, effective immediately. For the newly enacted fees, please see INS Forms & Fees, located on the Internet.

INS has stated that it will continue to accept the higher fees for now and will issue the INS-generated fee receipt notice. This is unlike INS' prior policy of rejecting the application or petition and refusing to generate the INS receipt notice to the applicant or petitioner. By agreeing to issue the INS receipt of the application or petition and providing a priority date, if applicable, it will help those who did not have sufficient advance notice of INS' decision to reduce fees. Since all these applications / petitions with fee changes have resulted in a reduction of fees, most applicants or petitioners will wish to pay the lower fee. INS has stated that they may issue refunds for applications or petitions received after January 23, 2003, if the person had sent in the higher fee. However, it may be best for most MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom readers to pay INS the correct fee rather than having to wait for several weeks or months to obtain a partial refund of the fee.