Public Comment Filed Opposing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Schedule, DHS Docket No. USCIS-2019-0010, RIN 1615-AC18 (filed Dec. 27, 2019)

On December 27, 2019, Immigration Equality submitted a comment in opposition to the new USCIS fee schedule. Under the fee schedule, for the first time ever, the United States will begin charging a fee of $50 dollars for affirmative asylum applications and a $490 fee for initial employment authorization documents (EADs) for asylum-seekers. USCIS has never charged a fee for either application before and neither fee is waivable for financial hardship. In addition, the fee schedule transfers $415.2 million in applicant fees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which is both improper and unconscionable as the Immigration and Nationality act requires those fees to be used to fund benefit adjudication of applications and petitions for benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act. For these reasons, Immigration Equality urged USCIS to withdraw the proposed Fee Schedule.

The fee schedule was finalized and was scheduled to go into effect on October 2, 2020, but was enjoined in federal court.

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