SAN ANTONIO – Starting April 1, migrants seeking a legal path in the U.S. will have to pay more to file their applications; in many cases, the costs are going up over 100%.
Immigration attorney Gerardo Menchaca says the filing process can be complex, time-consuming and high-tech, so many hire attorneys to help them.
“Often, what you would call an application is actually several applications inside of one,” Menchaca said. “And each application has its own fees. There’s this one application that went up about 100%, you know, but it is a lot of work. Like it’s not a simple application; it’s an application that usually goes with a thousand pages attached. So that means somebody’s got to sit there and read all that. So I can understand why they would increase the fees that much.”
According to the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) website, the fees for about 100 applications will change starting next month.
Menchaca has been warning clients to file early so that they avoid paying more. However, he says that USCIS fees tend to increase about every four years to keep up with inflation.
“The things that I see the most are applications for U.S. citizenship, they are going up 5%,” Menchas said. “In applications for green cards, for permanent residences, for a loved one like a spouse or a child, those are going up 20%.”
He estimates that about 10,000 U.S. citizenship applications are filed in San Antonio annually.