November 30, 2016

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they will increase most immigration application and petition fees effective December 23, 2016.

According to them, "Applications and petitions postmarked or filed on or after December 23, 2106, must include these new fees or USCIS will reject your submission." To avoid the raised fee, we recommend that you mail your application or petition well in advance to ensure that your application is received at USCIS prior to December 23. Please note that if your application is rejected by USCIS, it may jeopardize your status if it also results in missing the filing window. So, do not wait and plan accordingly.

The government filing fee increases will affect the I-129 H-1B filing fee, I-765 OPT application fee, and others. About H-1B, since it's a 3-step process (i.e. first two steps by HR and the final third step by us), it may not be possible to file it before the new fee effective date. The USCIS website lists all updated fees.