- within Immigration topic(s)
- in United States
On Jan. 9, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will publish a final rule increasing USCIS fees for premium processing.
Premium processing provides expedited processing for certain case types for an additional government filing fee.
In the announcement, USCIS stated that the premium process fee increase reflects the amount of inflation from June 2023 through June 2025. The USCIS Stabilization Act established the authority for DHS to adjust premium processing fees every two years to account for inflation. USCIS stated that the government will use the revenue generated by the fee increase to provide premium processing services, make improvements to adjudication processes, respond to adjudication demands, including processing backlogs, and otherwise fund USCIS adjudication and naturalization services. USCIS last adjusted premium processing in February 2024.
Effective March 1, 2026, requests for premium processing (Form I-907) must include the following updated fees:
|
Form |
Previous Fee |
New Fee |
|
Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant status |
$1,685 |
$1,780 |
|
Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, all other
available Form I-129 classifications: E-1 |
$2,805 |
$2,965 |
|
Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker,
employment-based classifications: E11 |
$2,805 |
$2,965 |
|
Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status,
requesting: F-1 |
$1,965 |
$2,075 |
|
Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, for certain eligible applications (OPT and STEM-OPT Classifications) |
$1,685 |
$1,780 |
The new fees will take effect for filings postmarked on or after March 1, 2026.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
