Planned citizenship fee hike raises stakes for immigrants

Banner Staff

The Bush administration’s proposal last month to increase the cost of becoming a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident has come under fire from advocates for Massachusetts’ immigrant community.

“These fee increases would be nearly insurmountable for people who have come a long way, and waited a long time to earn U.S. citizenship,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), which represents over 100 Bay State community and service organizations.

The proposal, announced Jan. 31 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), would increase the filing fees for more than two-dozen forms by an average of 66 percent. That includes a hike of the application fee for citizenship from $330 to $595. (MIRA placed the actual figures as a jump from $400 to $675.) The fee for becoming a legal permanent resident is slated to rise as well, from $325 to $905.

USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez said more than 99 percent of the agency’s costs are paid for with application fees.

The increases are needed to make up for lost revenue and to help the agency become “the immigration service of the 21st century,” he said.

“We need to grow. We need to strengthen. We need to modernize. We need to provide the very best possible customer service. We need to provide the very best possible security infrastructure for what we do,” Gonzalez said.

Applicants now pay a $70 fingerprinting fee. The agency wants to increase that to $80. Fees also are paid for work permits, replacing lost green cards and petitions to adopt orphans from other countries and other benefits.

The law allows some to file for free, including members of the military, refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and others. But for the vast majority of legal immigrants, the packet of four forms plus the fingerprinting fee needed for one person to become a permanent resident would go from $935 to $1985 under the proposed fee schedule.

Last year, 730,642 immigrants applied to become U.S. citizens, and 497,005 applied to become permanent residents.

The agency said it would raise $2 billion over those two years from the fee increases, which will be spent on improving immigration offices, technology, hiring and training, background checks of immigrants and speeding up completing applications.

But immigrants and their attorneys are afraid the fee hikes will hurt those who are trying to follow the rules, stalling their immigration process or delaying their ability to bring over close family members. Other attorneys said the increase is unfair because it asks immigrants who are following the law to pay for enforcement and fraud investigations — costs generated by those who haven’t followed procedure.

“It’s a targeted tax,” said Peter K. Hoffmann, a Boston immigration attorney. “These are services that benefit the whole country, not just immigrants.”

Advocates also fear some might try to cut costs by trying to navigate the complexities of immigration law without an attorney.

“Immigration law today is a much more dangerous thicket than it was a decade ago,” said Crystal Williams of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The wrong mistake could not only cause a person to lose his shot at citizenship, it could cost him his green card and his ability to live lawfully in the U.S.”

Despite plans to use the money to improve the quality of immigration services, providers across Massachusetts who assist immigrants in the naturalization process through the under-funded Citizenship for New Americans Program expressed dismay at the fee increase and concern for the individuals and families they serve.

“This hike runs counter to common sense,” said Thomas Keown of the Irish Immigration Center in Boston. “We all benefit from immigrants becoming citizens and when we have men and women proud to become Americans and eager to accept the responsibilities of citizenship, we should be excited to help them, not price them out of the market.”

Keown’s thoughts were echoed by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, border security and citizenship.

“We must look to other solutions for funding the necessary work of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,” Kennedy said. “We are a nation of immigrants and Congress should recognize its responsibility to support the vital work of immigration services by appropriating the necessary funds.”

The new citizenship application fee proposal would not be final until after a 60-day public comment and review period. Following the comment period, USCIS officials will review the public response and determine if adjustments should be made to the proposed increases, after which they will write the final rules, which Gonzalez said would likely go into effect in mid-June.

Congressional Democrats warned Gonzalez in a letter last month that they planned to review the agency’s analyses behind any proposed immigration fee increases. Advocates like MIRA’s Noorani also promise vigilance as the process proceeds.

“Each dollar increase in naturalization fees is another brick in the wall between immigrants and their dreams of citizenship,” said Noorani.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.