The Los Angeles Times reports that the USCIS is considering raising application fees again in an attempt to close a budget shortfall. Fees increased significantly in 2007 and it resulted in a plunge in applications. For example, it costs every man, woman, and child (who is not filing through an Armed Forces program) a non-refundabel $595 just to apply to become a U.S. Citizen. That does not include other miscellaneous fees that could be added and there is no guarantee that the application would be approved.
A fee increase would be short sighted. If the USCIS is truly underfunded then it should ask Congress for more money. A fee increase is simply going shift the costs to those that can least affort it.
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