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Fees that Congress set in H.R. 1 for first work permits, parole and Temporary Protected Status rose on Oct. 16 for anything postmarked from today. First-time filers pay $10 to $30 more, while most renewal fees did not move because of how the law rounds.
Higher fees for asylum seekers’, parolees’ and TPS applicants’ first work permits, for TPS itself and for humanitarian parole take effect today, Oct. 16, under the yearly inflation adjustment written into H.R. 1, the 2025 budget reconciliation law. The Department of Homeland Security notice setting the new amounts applies them to any filing postmarked on or after today and says a filing without the proper fee will be rejected. The increases are small, but they fall unevenly: people filing for the first time pay more, while most renewal fees stay exactly where they were.
When the inflation notices were first reported here on Sept. 30, the immigration court amounts were known but the USCIS figures and their start date were not. The final USCIS notice, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 1, settles both. It is also the second increase to these fees in less than ten months: the fiscal 2026 adjustment took effect only on Jan. 1, 2026.
| Fee | Before Oct. 16 | From Oct. 16 |
|---|---|---|
| Form I-765, first work permit for an asylum applicant, parolee or TPS applicant | $560 | $570 |
| Form I-821, TPS application fee | $510 | $520 |
| Form I-131, immigration parole fee | $1,020 | $1,050 |
| Annual fee while an asylum application is pending | $102 | $105 |
| Form I-589 asylum filing fee | $100 | $100 |
| Form I-765 renewal, parole or TPS work permit, and re-parole work permit | $280 | $280 |
| Form I-765 renewal, asylum applicant work permit | $275 | $275 |
| Form I-360, Special Immigrant Juvenile fee | $250 | $250 |
| Form I-94 fee | $24 | $24 |
A rounding rule that freezes renewals
H.R. 1 ties these fees to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. DHS measured the change from July 2025 (323.048) to July 2026 (333.918), an increase of 3.36 percent, and applied it to each current fee. The statute then requires most results to be rounded down to the next lowest multiple of $10. A $560 fee plus 3.36 percent comes to $578.84, which rounds down to $570. A $280 renewal fee comes to $289.42 and rounds back down to $280.
The practical effect is a threshold. Based on the notice’s method, a $280 fee moves only in a year when inflation reaches about 3.6 percent, the $250 Special Immigrant Juvenile fee needs 4 percent, and the $100 asylum filing fee would need 10 percent. Because DHS applies each year’s adjustment to the current, already rounded fee, a shortfall below the threshold is not carried into the next year. In a year of ordinary inflation, renewal fees can stay frozen while initial fees keep climbing. The renewal fee for an asylum applicant’s work permit, $275, is outside the inflation formula altogether: the notice says H.R. 1 does not adjust it.
The two fees rounded to the dollar instead of to $10 behave differently. The annual fee charged for each year an asylum application stays pending rose $3, to $105. The $24 Form I-94 fee did not change, because 3.36 percent of $24 is less than a dollar.
The postmark decides, and two ICE fees climb past $5,000
For applicants, the date that matters is the postmark. The notice says any request postmarked on or after Oct. 16 without the proper fee will be rejected, so a TPS or parole-based work permit package going into the mail today needs the new amount. The notice does not separately discuss a package mailed before today that arrives later, but by tying the rule to the postmark it signals that the earlier amount governs those filings. A rejection costs the most for anyone filing against a TPS re-registration window or another deadline.
A separate DHS notice raises two enforcement fees that ICE collects under H.R. 1 from $5,130 to $5,300, also starting today. One applies to people ordered removed in absentia who are later arrested; the other to people apprehended while entering between ports of entry. The notice says no waivers are available for the first of these, that it does not apply when an in absentia order is rescinded, and that DHS will notify each affected person with payment instructions.
Immigration court fees for DHS forms filed with an immigration judge, including court-filed Form I-485 and Form I-601 applications, moved separately on Oct. 1 under a Justice Department notice. DHS has said it may later write the annual adjustments into its fee regulations at 8 CFR part 106. Until then, each year’s amounts arrive by notice, and the next set will depend on the July 2027 price index.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- DHS/USCIS, Fiscal Year 2027 Inflation Adjustment to H.R. 1 Immigration Fees, 91 FR 62540 (Oct. 1, 2026)
- DHS, Certain DHS Immigration-Related Fees Required by HR-1: Fiscal Year 2027 Adjustments for Inflation (FR Doc. 2026-20186, Oct. 1, 2026)
- USCIS alert: USCIS Announces FY 2027 Inflation Increase for Certain Immigration-Related Fees
- Executive Office for Immigration Review, Inflation Adjustment for EOIR OBBBA Fees for Certain DHS Forms; Fiscal Year 2027 (Sept. 29, 2026)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers, series CUUR0000SA0 (July 2025 and July 2026 values as stated in the DHS notice)
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