USCIS fee increase 2020 is now on hold 9/29/20

Summary: New fees and form versions and other changes associated with the final fee rule that were to be effective on October 2, 2020 are now on hold.

Back in July, I shared this article USCIS fee increase; 2020 OPT fee increase by 34% which highlighted the USCIS fee increase 2020 that would impact F and J students. The rule specified that “Any application, petition, or request postmarked on or after this date (10/2/2020) must be accompanied with the fees established by this final rule.” Based on this final rule, OPT applicants were supposed to pay $550 as a filing fee starting from October 2nd. In addition, Form I-765 supposed to be updated to reflect this change, which requires students to complete the 10/2/2020 edition of Form I-765.

However, on September 29, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction and stay on implementation of the 2020 final USCIS fee rule. Therefore, if you were planning to apply for OPT in the near future, you can continue to complete the 8/25/2020 edition of the Form I-765 and pay $410 even after October 2nd until the court issues the final decision. If you haven’t taken a look at increased fees, you can click the Related blog post 1 below. I also added a table that shows the summary of the fee change in the next section. To learn how to check the edition of the form, you can click the Related blog post 2.

This is the summary of the recent court rule and in the next section, I will briefly discuss why Chad Wolf (Acting Secretary of Department of Homeland Security) was accused twice in 3 months.

Related blog post 1: USCIS fee increase; 2020 OPT fee increase by 34%
Related blog post 2: IMPORTANT I-765 form update: 8/25/2020 edition

Contents

• Why Plaintiffs accused Defendants
• What the court ordered on the USCIS fee increase 2020

Why Plaintiffs accused Defendants

According to the document Order Granting Motion for Preliminary Injunction, there are three main reasons that Plaintiffs (Immigrant Legal Resource Center, et al.) accused Defendants (Chad F. Wolf, Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security).

1. Failing to Disclose Data, Relying on Unexplained Data, and Ignoring Data in the Record.
   • For the Plaintiffs, it is not clear why the fee increase is inevitable.
2. Failure to Consider Important Aspects of the Problem.
   • DHS was planning to require a $50.00 non-waivable fee to apply for asylum. Plaintiffs argue that until this rule was proposed, the United States did not charge a fee to apply for asylum. In this regard, the Plaintiffs are worried about the negative impact the rule will have on low-income immigrant populations.
3. Failure to Justify Policy Shifts
   • Like it is mentioned above, charging asylum and so forth is shifting the policy from the ability-to-pay principle, which has been a primary principle for the U.S. policies, to the beneficiary-pays principle.

Due to these reasons, the Plaintiffs (Immigrant Legal Resource Center, et al.) even questioned: “The Validity of Mr. McAleenan’s and Mr. Wolf’s Service as Acting Secretary of DHS” (page 6). If you have followed the blog, you might have noticed that this is his second time being accused in the past 3 months. When ICE prohibited the entry of international students who are taking 100% online classes, he got sued by Harvard and MIT along with other 50+ higher education institutions. Details on this matter can be found in the following two related blog posts.

Related blog post 1: Harvard, MIT, California State filed Lawsuits against ICE rules
Related blog post 2: ICE rule on international students is rescinded

What the court ordered on the USCIS fee increase 2020

The court ordered:

1. “Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. section 705 the Court STAYS implementation and the effective date of USCIS Immigration Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements, 85 Fed. Reg. 46,788 (Aug. 3, 2020) (the “Final Rule”) in its entirety pending final adjudication of this matter.
2. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65, Defendants Wolf, in his official capacity under the title of Acting Secretary of DHS; Cuccinelli, in his official capacity under the title of Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of DHS; DHS; and USCIS, and all persons acting under their direction, ARE ENJOINED from implementing or enforcing the Final Rule or any portion thereof.
3. This preliminary injunction and stay shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect pending trial in this action or further of this Court.”

To reiterate, students who are graduating this December, thus plan to apply for OPT, can complete the 8/25/20 edition of the Form I-765 and pay $410 as a filing fee instead of 10/2/2020 edition and $550.