USCIS Announces New Annual Fees for Asylum Seekers, Increases TPS Registration Fees, and Makes Changes to EAD Validity Periods

On Tuesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will issue a Federal Register notice enforcing new fees for certain immigration benefit requests postmarked on or after July 22, 2025. Benefit requests submitted to the agency without the proper fees will be rejected.

These new fees are part of the H.R. 1 Reconciliation Bill. A portion of these new fees will be deposited into a U.S. Treasury account that primarily funds the operations of USCIS.

Please be aware that the Federal Register Notice does not include all the new fees mandated by the new bill. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will issue a future announcement regarding the implementation of fees that have not been addressed in Tuesday’s notice.

What are the new fees?

A new fee of $100 applies to applicants filing Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal
A new Annual Asylum Fee (AAF) of $100 (must be paid online) for all applicants with a pending Form I-589 for each calendar year their application remains pending.
New fees apply to applicants filing Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, for asylum, parolee, and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) categories. The categories are (a)(4), (a)(12), (c)(8), (c)(11), (c)(19), and (c)(34). The fees are:
- $550 for initial EAD applications and
- $275 for renewal or extension EAD applications.
Exception:
- There is one exception to these fees. If an applicant requests an EAD after USCIS approves a new period of parole (re-parole) by filing Form I-131, Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records, the fee will be $275;
A new Special Immigrant Juvenile fee of $250 applies to any applicant who files a Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, as a special immigrant juvenile; and
Increases the maximum cost to register for TPS using Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status, from $50 to $500.

Annual Asylum Fee (AAF)—Knowing When the Fee is Paid

Any applicant who filed or files a Form I-589 after October 1, 2024, that remains pending with USCIS for 365 days must pay the AAF as of the one-year anniversary of his or her filing date and each year thereafter that the application remains pending on such day of the calendar year.

For the first time the fee if due, asylum applicants do not need to monitor the time their application has been pending to determine if the AAF applies to them.

USCIS will issue personal notices to applicants when their annual asylum fee is due, which will include the amount of the fee, when it must be paid, how the fee must be paid, and the consequences of failing to pay.

Changes to EAD Validity Periods

The bill also changes the validity periods of some Employment Authorization Document (EAD) categories.

For parolees, initial employment authorization is valid for a period of no more than one year or for the duration of the alien’s parole, whichever is shorter.

For TPS beneficiaries, initial and renewal employment authorizations are valid for no more than one year or for the duration of the alien’s TPS status, whichever is shorter.

Payment of Fees and Fee Waivers

Each fee must be submitted separately. These new fees do not replace USCIS Fees, rather they will be charged “in addition” to current fees. They cannot be waived or reduced, but fee waiver requests can be made for certain USCIS forms by submitting Form I-912, Request for Fee Waiver.

For more information, please click here.

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