Drastic fee increase for citizenship
By Martha Laura Garcia Izaguirre, Supervising Attorney
Update September 29, 2020: A federal judge has halted the fee increase. Read more here.
Starting October 2nd, the fee for the citizenship application is set to increase by 81 percent and this has raised serious concerns among immigration law practitioners, immigrants’ rights advocates, and the immigrant community in general. Raising fees for immigration and citizenship processes is nothing new. The federal government re-evaluates its immigration fees every ten years. Those of us working in immigration law were expecting some revisions, however, we were not expecting the revisions to be so drastic and damaging.
Currently the fee for the citizenship application is $725. Additionally, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allows for two exceptions to this fee. If the applicant’s income is at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines, the applicant can apply for a fee waiver. Similarly, if the applicant’s income is between 150% and 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, the applicant can pay a reduced fee. The revisions to the fee would not only increase the price of the application to $1,255, but also eliminate both the fee waiver and the reduced fee options. These measures will not only discourage eligible green card holders from naturalizing, but make it impossible for them to apply.
Even without the fee increase, payment is already a huge barrier many eligible immigrants face when deciding whether or not to apply for citizenship. A 2019 study from Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Law found that between 2006 and 2017, half of the legal permanent residents (green card holders) who applied for citizenship qualified for a fee waiver. As a result of these revisions, many legal permanent residents who are eligible and were hoping to become U.S. citizens soon have no choice but to put their dream of naturalizing on hold.
Furthermore, while the fee for citizenship will increase, the fee for renewing a green card will be decreasing. Legal permanent residents must renew their green card every ten years. The current fee for this process is $540. On October 2nd, this will decrease to $500; a nine percent decrease. This is incredibly significant because it sends the message that, essentially, the federal government would rather legal permanent residents continue to renew their status than become citizens who can vote. A recent study found that more than 23 million naturalized citizens (green card holders who became U.S. citizens) will be eligible to vote in the 2020 elections. In fact, since 2000, the number of naturalized citizen voters has increased by 93% and currently make up about 10% of the nation’s electorate. While the number of legal permanent residents who are eligible to naturalize will continue to rise, we anticipate that the economic barriers to citizenship will affect the number of naturalized citizen voters in the future.
Nonetheless, we remain hopeful. For the last few years, those of us working in immigration and the immigration community at large have been facing the stream of increasingly restrictive immigration policies head on. Partnerships among organizations at the local, state, and national level have allowed us to think outside of the box and continue to empower immigrants across the country. From fundraising and creating small loans to speaking with elected officials to educating the community, immigrants and their advocates are finding creative ways to overcome these types of barriers. For more information about how we and other organizations nationwide are responding to the upcoming fee changes, visit our website or check out our social media accounts.
