Just when employers in the United States were raising concerns about the steep increase in the statutory fees for certain H-1B and L-1 petitions (to say nothing about continued complaints regarding the lengthy delays in adjudicating petitions), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) threw another curve ball. Putting into practice the “Full Cost Recovery” theory, DHS has proposed to raise USCIS filing fees by a weighted average of 21 percent and to impose a stiff new fee on the Regional Centers with regard to EB-5 processing in an effort to fully recover costs for its services. The proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register and is open for public comments until July 5, 2016. USCIS calculates its fees to recover the full cost of USCIS operations, which do not include the limited appropriated funds provided by Congress. USCIS anticipates that if it continues to operate at current fee levels, it will experience an average annual shortfall of $560 million. This projected shortfall poses a risk of degrading USCIS operations. The proposed rule would eliminate this risk by ensuring full cost recovery. As such, DHS is proposing to adjust fees by a weighted average increase of 21 percent (%).
In order to recover the full cost of processing, DHS is proposing to establish a new fee of $3,035.00 for the Annual Certification of Regional Center, Form I-924A, pertaining to the EB-5 Regional Center investor visa program benefit. As many are aware, Form I-924A is used by Regional Centers to demonstrate continued eligibility for their designation. Although approved regional centers are required to file the Form I- 924A annually, there is currently no filing fee and the processing cost is borne by other individuals paying fees for immigration benefits. Until now USCIS was using its adjudicative resources to handle Form I-924A without charging any fee for approximately 800 currently approved Regional Centers. This annual subsidy provided to the EB-5 Regional Center is soon going to end. Note that the rule also proposes to change the title of Form I-924A from “Supplement to Form I-924” to “Annual Certification of Regional Centers.” Further, the proposed fee for processing the Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, will increase by 145 % to $3,675 (from the current fee of $1,500.00). The good news is that the fee for processing Form I-829, Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions, is going to remain the same at level of $3,750.00.