USCIS has announced that the agency will collect immigrant fees from the foreign nationals who are looking forward to obtain US Green Cards. According to an announcement from the USCIS, starting from 3rd February, 2013, a foreign national who is applying for lawful status in the United States will have to pay $165, as USCIS immigrant fees.
Immigrant visa applicants must now pay two separate fees, one for DOS visa processing and the other as the USCIS immigrant fees. This fees will help the USCIS to retrieve the money that it spends while processing immigrant visas. USCIS worked together with the US Department of State and implemented this new immigrant fees. USCIS will use this fees to produce Green Cards and to deliver them to the applicants. Similarly, this fee will also be used to pay the staff and to maintain the visa packages. USCIS will publish additional information about the USCIS immigrant fees in the Federal Register.
Immigrant visa applicants who receive their visa packages from the DOS, will have to pay the immigrant fees to the USCIS through the USCIS website, before they travel to the United States. USCIS has simplified the payment process and the applicants need not go anywhere in person to pay the fees as they can make the payment electronically. While the applicants appear for consular interviews at US consular offices abroad, they will be provided information about how they must make the payment.
Apart from paying the visa processing fees to the DOS, visa applicants will have to pay the immigrant fees to the USCIS. They may not be issued Green Cards until they pay the immigrant fees. Around 36,000 immigrant visa applications are being processed by the USCIS every month. USCIS has also announced that the parents who adopt children from foreign countries, through the Orphan or Hague process, need not pay the immigrant fees.