Citizenship and Immigration Services May Increase Fees Again to Cover Budget Shortfall

In an interview today with the Houston Chronicle, Alejandro Mayorkas, the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) indicated that another round of application and petition filing fee increases was probable in the near term.

While the fee increase story was first reported on September 23 by the LA Times, the Houston Chronicle interview made news on the same day as DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's first major speech on the administration's goals for immigration reform.  Those goals include a legalization program that would eventually mean millions of new filings and billions in new revenues to CIS. Majorkas, who was born in Cuba, oversees an agency that employs 18,000 people. In the same interview he also suggested that layoffs may be necessary to stem the budget shortfall. Napolitano and CIS, however, have repeatedly assured that the agency is preparing to absorb the massive workload that would ensue from legalization by clearing its present backlogs.