Final Rule Regarding Fee Increases Pending at OMB
Posted Apr 02, 2004
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received a final rule from the USCIS, on March 29, 2004, regarding fee increases for immigration benefit applications. The OMB does not release information on items that it is reviewing, so it is unclear whether the fees in the final rule will remain as set out in the proposed rule the USCIS published in the Federal Register on February 3, 2004. This proposed fee increase was examined in our February 6, 2004 MurthyBulletin article, USCIS Fees Expected to Increase in 2004, available on MurthyDotCom.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) submitted comments opposing the fee increase. One of its major concerns pertains to the USCIS increasing their backlogs and providing slower service, while requiring their customers to pay more. The USCIS must take all such comments into account when issuing a regulation. The OMB may take up to 90 days to review the final rule. Once the OMB reviews the rule, assuming it has no objections, the regulation must be published in the Federal Register before it goes into effect. Usually, when the USCIS increases fees, the new fees do not go into effect immediately. There is generally at least a 30-day transitional period. We will not know the effective date of the new fees until the rule is published.
We will continue to monitor the fee increases and will report to MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers whenever any additional information becomes available on this important issue.
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