And the level of service is also going down. Applicants pay an extra $1440 for "premium processing) to get a 15 day decision (it's many months if you don't so it's basically a bribe to get decent service). Now it's going to be 15 BUSINESS days. So about a week or 50% longer. 7
And the most appalling personally to me is the introduction of filing fees for asylum applications for the first time since WWII. The fee is $50 and it's coming from people fleeing persecution to our shores. The mere symbolism of this is terrible. 8
Some of the costs for fees associated with defending against deportation are also going up way faster than inflation. The I-601A fee for provisional unlawful presence waivers is nearly doubling to $960. 9
And the I-929 petition for a qualifying family member of a U-1 nonimmigrant (a victim of crime) goes up from $215 in 11/2016 to $1485, a 546% increase! 10
If you want to appeal your naturalization denial, the fee in Nov 2016 for an N-336 Request for Hearing was $650 and now is going to $1735. 11
Keep in mind this is an agency that is PROFITABLE. Even with the Trump shenanigans where they're drastically increasing the amount of time spent on each application, USCIS is turning a profit this year. 12
This is all a part of the Stephen Miller plan to make immigrating to the US as difficult and as expensive as possible & the threatened laying off 75% of the workers at an agency that's profitable (far from bankrupt) is part of that plan as well. 13
It didn't even occur to me that they are also going to charge asylum applicants for work cards. That's another $500. Shameful!
