USCIS to increase fees on immigration and naturalization forms

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service has increased the prices of the N-400 Application for Citizenship fee, going up from $640 to $725, and the “Green Card” packet, going up from $1,760 to $3,005.

This price increase will be difficult for many refugee and immigrant families to cover and may prohibit or hamper their ability to sponsor their relatives to join them in the U.S.

Albert Mbanfu, executive director of the International Center of Kentucky in Bowling Green, says that, although the organization will be able to cover or assist many people with the costs, it wont necessarily be easy to deal with.

“For an agency like ours that want to see as many refugees as possible benefit from aid, it is never a good news because that becomes a hindrance to the refugees to file for their papers. A typical example is if the fee was $400 and it takes a refugee four months to save the $400, not it would take that individual probably six months or eight months to come off of $800 right now,” Mbanfu said.

The price increases were put in place by USCIS to keep the costs inline with inflation.

There are a number of federal programs that can waive and cover some of these costs for individuals who qualify.