Attorney Kearns practices immigration law and general practice from Chicago, Illinois. We invite questions or topic requests by email: jwkearns@hotmail.com. Please call or email with questions about immigration, business, or general law or American culture. Consultations by telephone or in the office can be arranged by calling: (312) 738-2529. See advertisement elsewhere in this newspaper.

Online Change Of Address: All non-U.S. citizens are required to report a change of address within 10 days of moving by completing a Form AR-11. USCIS customers, with cases pending, should change their address as soon as possible after moving. All non-citizens and USCIS customers, with cases pending, can now submit change of addresses online. Before going online, you should have: (1) USCIS receipt number (if you have a case pending with USCIS); (2) new and old addresses; (3) names and biographical information for any family members for whom you’ve filed; and (4) date and location (port of entry) of your last entry into the United States. Always be sure to confirm that the change of address has registered.

Consulates No Longer Accepting I-130 Window Filing: The Department of State has informed embassies and consulates that the recently adopted Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act requires all immigration petitions for family-based categories (Forms I-130 and I-600) be approved by immigration officers from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security. Consular officers overseas are no longer authorized to accept or adjudicate immigration petitions. This change is effective January 23, 2007.

Immigration Application Fees To Double Or Triple By June: The USCIS has announced a substantial filing fee increase for application processing, in most cases doubling or even tripling the current fee. These fees are the “tax” that is paid to the government and have nothing to do with the fees that private immigration service providers, such as attorneys, travel agents, notaries, or your neighbor are going to charge you for their services, although you can probably expect to see those fees eventually go up proportionately as well.

Here are some examples: Work permits (employment authorization) will go from $180 to $340. I-130 Alien Relative Petitions will go from $190 to $335. Adjustment applications (for a green card) will go from $325 to $905. That means that an entire marriage case application (without travel permit) will go from $765 to $1,660. I-140 Immigrant Worker Visas will go from $195 to $475. I-129F for K (fiancé) visas will go from $170 to $455. Appeals and Motions to Reopen or Reconsider, which recently went from $110 to $385, now go to $585, so you better be serious about keeping your case open.

Citizenship applications will go from $330 plus $70 for fingerprints to $595 plus $80 for fingerprints, or a total of $675.00. This may cause a hardship for elderly citizenship applicants whose working children will not help them pay the increased fee. Luckily, there is a “fee waiver” process for “inability to pay.” This decision is at the discretion of the Service which just raised the fees because their costs are going up, so that this waiver is not going to be so easy to get without truly “compelling reasons.” They have tightened up the criteria upon which that decision may be based, and limited the applications that can qualify. The problem is applying for a fee waiver on an application when there is a support requirement involved. For example, permanent residents are supposed to be self-supporting and filing taxes that list income exceeding 125% of the poverty guidelines. So, while there is no support requirement for citizenship, if a naturalization applicant seeks a fee waiver, do you think the interviewer will want to see the past tax returns in deciding whether to grant the fee waiver? Since, in the naturalization interview, they ask about taxes just because of the “good moral character” requirement, either the person fails to meet the support requirement or he has filed phony tax returns, committing tax fraud. Pick one.

Here’s what the USCIS says about this waiver. Try to read between the lines, and good luck! “USCIS also has the ability to waive fees on a case-by-case basis for “inability to pay,” considering all factors, circumstances, and evidence supplied by the applicant including age, disability, household income, and qualification within the past 180 days for a federal means tested benefit.” (In other words, if the applicant “qualified” for a federal means tested benefit, there’s a big chance they violated the support requirement to maintain permanent residence.) “Fairness requires that there be compelling reasons when granting an individual fee waiver to one applicant while making others applying for the same benefit or service pay full cost.” Fee waiver requests are now limited to the following applications: Form I-90; Form I-751; Form I-765; Form I-817; Form N-300; Form N-336; Form N-400; Form N-470; Form N-565; Form N-600; Form N-600k; and the Forms I-290B (Appeal) and Motions to Reopen or Reconsider filed with USCIS.

By the way, 2007 Poverty Guidelines have been issued and should be used now.

Required Disclaimer: The information provided in this article should not be construed as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. While the statements contained herein reflect the opinions of the author only, and not the publication or its editors, the information provided may be a summary or compilation from other sources, who are gratefully acknowledged hereby. The contents are intended for general information purposes only, and you are urged to consult with a lawyer concerning your own situation and any specific legal questions you may have. © Copyright John W. Kearns.