On January 31, 2007, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials announced proposed fee increases that would mark the largest spike in history.

USCIS says the fee hikes will allow it to hire more staff and upgrade its creaky system so applications can be approved faster. Among its proposals is to raise the application fee for citizenship from $330 to $595 and the fee for legal permanent residency from $325 to $905.

The justification given by the USCIS for this proposed increase is that the additional revenue is necessary to reduce processing delays, strengthen security and fraud prevention and investigation efforts, and to clear the extensive backlog of applications. This rationale, however, contains very serious flaws.

The USCIS determines its backlog by counting only those applications that are ready for USCIS adjudication. However, all permanent resident and naturalization applications are subject to FBI review. Because those applications awaiting this review are not yet ready for adjudication, they are determined by the USCIS to be out of its control, and therefore are not reflected in its estimation of backlogged cases.  Furthermore, in 2006, the USCIS had already received appropriated funds to supplement filing fees and ease backlogs on applications.

The Bush administration has proposed increasing immigrant application fees by an average of 66 percent — some as high as 80 percent:

If passed, the fee increases should take effect no sooner than June 1, 2007