Adventures in Navigating the New Filing Fee Schedule: Green Card Marriage Applicants

By:  Richard Hanus, Esq.

May 5, 2024

Even for me, a 30-year immigration law veteran, the new US Department of Homeland Security/Citizenship and Immigration Services (US CIS) filing fee schedule can present a menacing head ache.    In so many contexts, whether for an H-1B work visa petition, or a marriage based adjustment of status (Green Card) filing, the process of selecting the proper fee can be overwhelming, especially when the US CIS website user experience features a multi-link labyrinth of sub appendixes and fee lists. Below is just one scenario where applicants are presented with a mind numbing set of options – the Green Card marriage/adjustment of status “one stop” filing.

For certain, the Green Card marriage/adjustment of status filing is among the most popular U.S. immigration filings and comes into play when a foreign national present in the U.S. applies for lawful permanent resident or “Green Card” status after marrying a U.S. citizen.     When eligible, a foreign national and their U.S. citizen spouse then must navigate the various form options, supporting documentation requirements and now, the new filing fee maze.  In almost all cases, the filing package involves the following fee based forms (in addition to required supporting documentation as noted in each of the form’s instructions):

A) I-485 Application to Adjust Status, B) I-130 Petition for Alien Relative Petition and C) I-765 Application for Employment Authorization Document (EAD) are the fee based form trio that almost always make up the marriage based Green Card filing.  A 4^th application, Form I-131 – Application for Travel Document is also often added when an applicant looks to obtain an Advance Parole Travel Document to have the option of traveling outside the U.S. while their Green Card filing is pending.

Although 2 of the above component forms are eligible for online filing, the I-485 is not and as a result, when proceeding with the above package of filings, all forms must be submitted via conventional paper filing.   I suspect in the coming years this will all change, as the online technology in place is refined and glitches are cured.   In the meantime, the marriage based adjustment of status process for eligible applicants present in the U.S. must proceed by way of a paper document filing.

I-485 Application to Adjust Status to Permanent Resident: The paper filing fee is $1,440.00.    There is no additional biometrics fee to add.

I-130 Petition for Alien Relative: Paper filing fee is $675.00.

I-765 Application for Employment Authorization Document: When filing concurrent with the I-485 application, the paper filing fee is $260.00.

I-131 – Application for Travel Document: Paper filing fee $630.00

TOTAL FEE – When filing all 4 applications together, the total US CIS filing fee will be $3,005.00 – and when submitting by check or money order, applicants must be sure to submit each form filing payment in a separate check or money order, i.e. a check or money order for the total amount of the filing fees will result in the filing being rejected.

Please note that the online US CIS fee calculator – accessible at https://www.uscis.gov/feecalculator – is generally a reliable means of arriving at the correct filing fees.

Finally, applicants must pay attention to the detailed instructions for each of these forms, including the list of required supporting documentation and non-fee based forms (e.g. Form I-864, I-693, petitioner tax returns/financial info, birth and marriage certificates, divorce decrees, etc.) that always must accompany this type of filing.