Why does USCIS charge fees for immigration benefits?
A. The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes USCIS to recover the costs of providing most immigration benefits and services through fees. As a fee-based organization, USCIS uses revenue from application fees to pay for the administration of the nation’s immigration laws, processing of applications and the infrastructure needed to support these activities. Fee revenue funds more than 90 percent of the USCIS budget. Q. How does USCIS derive its fees and fee levels? A. USCIS uses Activity-Based Costing (ABC) to determine the full cost of immigration benefits and biometric services. ABC is a business management tool that assigns resource costs to operational activities and then to products and services. This process provides an accurate assessment of the costs associated with each service USCIS provides. The adjusted fees result from a combination of the ABC model results, estimated budgetary costs, projected levels of applications and petitions for the biennial period and policy and
