The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published an inflation-linked adjustment that will raise a range of immigration processing fees on 1 January 2026. The notice, released on 24 November, applies limited increases of roughly 2 per cent to employment authorisation documents (EADs), Temporary Protected Status filings and certain parole applications, while leaving asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile fees unchanged.
Although modest, the rise coincides with a historically strong US dollar and could add several thousand rupees to multi-family applications. For Indian professionals who rely on EADs during green-card processing or spouses holding L-2 and H-4 dependent status, the Form I-765 fee will move from US$550 to US$560. Renewal EADs rise in parallel. A new I-821 TPS filing will cost US$510.
![USCIS to hike select immigration fees from 1 January 2026—Indian applicants should budget now]()
Corporate mobility teams should update cost projections for 2026 relocations and refresh employee communication templates. Legal advisors note that the narrow scope of the adjustment is separate from the broader fee overhaul USCIS proposed in 2023—which remains tied up in litigation. That proposal sought steeper increases for H-1B and L-1 petitions; the latest notice does not alter those categories.
Strategically, employers may wish to accelerate renewal filings in December 2025 to lock in current rates, provided eligibility windows permit. Filing electronically can shave processing times by 10-15 per cent, according to USCIS metrics.
USCIS emphasised that yearly inflation adjustments are now mandated by law, meaning similar incremental rises can be expected each fiscal year. Indian nationals constitute the largest share of US high-skilled visa holders, accounting for over 73 per cent of H-1B approvals in FY 2024; even small fee changes thus ripple across thousands of households.
Although modest, the rise coincides with a historically strong US dollar and could add several thousand rupees to multi-family applications. For Indian professionals who rely on EADs during green-card processing or spouses holding L-2 and H-4 dependent status, the Form I-765 fee will move from US$550 to US$560. Renewal EADs rise in parallel. A new I-821 TPS filing will cost US$510.
Corporate mobility teams should update cost projections for 2026 relocations and refresh employee communication templates. Legal advisors note that the narrow scope of the adjustment is separate from the broader fee overhaul USCIS proposed in 2023—which remains tied up in litigation. That proposal sought steeper increases for H-1B and L-1 petitions; the latest notice does not alter those categories.
Strategically, employers may wish to accelerate renewal filings in December 2025 to lock in current rates, provided eligibility windows permit. Filing electronically can shave processing times by 10-15 per cent, according to USCIS metrics.
USCIS emphasised that yearly inflation adjustments are now mandated by law, meaning similar incremental rises can be expected each fiscal year. Indian nationals constitute the largest share of US high-skilled visa holders, accounting for over 73 per cent of H-1B approvals in FY 2024; even small fee changes thus ripple across thousands of households.
