On Wednesday, November 2, 2016 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hosted a stakeholder engagement on the final rule published in the Federal Register last month which adjusted the fees required for most immigration applications and petitions including EB-5.
Under this final rule the fees will increase bu a weighted average of 21 percent and establish a new fee of $3,035 covering USCIS costs related to the processing of Form I-924A. The new fees will take effect December 23.
This marks the first time in six years that USCIS has increased fees. This increase is necessary to recover the full cost of services provided by USCIS. These include the costs associated with fraud detection and national security, customer service and case processing, and providing services without charge to refugee and asylum applicants and to other customers eligible for fee waivers or exemptions.
Changes in the new fee schedule can be found here.
The new fees related to EB-5 Petitions are as follow:
- Form I-924A (to be titled “Annual Certification of Regional Center”): new $3,035 fee
- Form I-924 application for regional center designation or amendment: increase from $6,230 to $17,795
- Form I-526 immigrant petition: increase from $1,500 to $3,675
- Form I-829 petition to remove conditions: no change (still $3,750)
