Filing Fees

Alert: We published a final rule to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees for the first time since 2016.

For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.

A filing fee is required for many immigration forms. If you do not submit the correct fee, we will reject your form.

We periodically adjust our fees. For a complete list of all USCIS fees, see our Fee Schedule.

You can use our Fee Calculator to determine the exact filing and, if applicable, biometric services fees for any form processed at a USCIS Lockbox facility.

How you pay your USCIS filing fees (including biometric services fees and other fees, if applicable) will depend on whether you are inside or outside of the United States.

If you live outside the United States or its territories

If you live outside the United States or its territories and you want to file your application, petition, or request where you live, go to the Forms section of our website to determine if you can file your form at an international office. We do not accept all forms of payment abroad. Check the appropriate International USCIS office webpage or contact the U.S. Embassy or Consulate for information on how to pay USCIS fees.

If you are inside the United States

Depending on the form you are submitting, you may pay your fees:

• Online using a card or bank withdrawal; or
• By mail with a card, check, bank draft, or money order.

When filing Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, directly with a USCIS field office to request emergency advance parole, you may pay only by card, personal check, or business check. Refer to the USCIS Emergency Travel page for more information.

For more information on filing your specific form, go to the USCIS All Forms page. Please see our News page for the latest updates.

Multiple Applications or Methods of Payment

If you are submitting multiple forms, pay each filing fee separately. We are transitioning to electronically processing immigration benefit requests, which requires us to use multiple systems to process your package. We may reject your entire package if you submit a single, combined payment for multiple forms. For example, when filing Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status; Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization; and/or Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, together with a Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, you must provide separate payments for each form. If you combine the payments for these forms, we may reject the entire package.

You must pay for each application, petition, or request you submit using a single payment method (check, bank draft, money order, or card) and not a combination of payment methods. For example, if you file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, you cannot pay for half the fee with a personal check and half the fee with credit card.

Pay with a Check

You may pay fees with bank drafts, cashier’s checks, certified checks, personal or business checks (made payable to U.S. Department of Homeland Security), and money orders that are drawn on U.S. financial institutions and payable in U.S. funds. If filing Form I-131 directly with a domestic USCIS field office to request emergency advance parole, you can only pay by personal or business check (or card).

You must mail your check, bank draft, or money order together with your benefit request form. Refer to the form instructions for more information. Please see our News page for the latest updates.

If you are paying your fees by check, please be aware of the following:

• Authorization for an Electronic Funds Transfer: By submitting your check, you authorize us to convert your check into an electronic fund transfer. We will use the account information from your check to make an electronic fund transfer from your checking account for the amount of the check. If the transfer cannot occur for technical reasons, you authorize us to process the copy of your original check through normal paper check procedures.
• Insufficient Funds: The electronic fund transfer from your account can occur faster than normal processing for a paper check. If your check or other financial instrument is returned as unpayable, we will resubmit the payment one time. If it is returned as unpayable a second time, we will reject your filing.
• If your check is not dated within the previous 365 days, we will reject the filing.

Personal checks must be preprinted with your name and your bank’s name. Your address and phone number must be preprinted, typed, or written in ink.

1. Write the date you are completing the check. Use the U.S. style of month/day/year. (Example: Jan. 4, 2017, or 1/4/17, but not 4/1/17 or 4 JAN 2017.)
2. On the “Pay to the Order of” line, write “U.S. Department of Homeland Security” (not “USDHS” or “DHS”).
3. Use numerals to show the exact dollar amount of the fee for the service you are requesting. In the example, the amount is “$760.00.”
4. Spell out the exact dollar amount of the fee and write the “cents” portion of the amount as a fraction over 100. In this example, the amount is “Seven hundred sixty and 00/100.”
5. Write a brief description of the purpose of your payment. In this example, it is “N-400 application.” Include the applicant’s name on the memo line if it is not on the check itself (for example, if you are paying the fee for your child).
6. Sign the check in ink using your legal name.
7. If your check is not dated within the previous 365 days, we will reject the filing.

If paying by credit or debit card, you must pay each filing fee separately for each application, petition, or request you submit.

You may pay filing and any other applicable fees with a credit or debit card issued by a U.S. bank if you are filing:

• An application, petition, or request with a USCIS lockbox; or
• An application, petition, or request with the USCIS service centers.

There is no additional cost if you pay by credit or debit card. We cannot accept a credit or debit card issued by a foreign bank.

Acceptable Credit or Debit Cards

You may use Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and prepaid cards from the same card networks. Make sure the card’s credit limit can cover the fee. We will reject your application, petition, or request if the card is declined, and we will not attempt to process your credit card payment a second time.

We do not support payment by gift cards.

How to Pay with a Card When Filing by Mail

To pay with a card, follow these two steps:

1. Complete and sign Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions (PDF, 261.57 KB) .
2. Place the form on top of your application, petition, or request when you file it.

When filing Form G-1450 with a Lockbox or Service Center, you may split the payment for one form across multiple credit, debit, or prepaid cards that add up the correct total. Complete one Form G-1450 for each card. However, you may use only one Form G-1450 when requesting emergency advance parole from a USCIS field Office. In all cases, the credit, debit, or prepaid card must be from a financial institution located in the United States.

If we accept your filing, we will charge your card for the proper amount and destroy your Form G-1450 to protect your card information. (We will destroy it even if we reject your filing and do not process your payment.)

You will see a charge from USCIS on your credit card statement.

There is a daily transaction limit for credit cards of $24,999.99 per credit card per day set by the Department of the Treasury. We allow an exemption to this limit of up to $99,999.99 for H-1B registrations and petitions submitted online using one credit card.

Security

We use the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Pay.gov Trusted Collections Service to process your credit card payment. Trusted Collections Service is a web-based application that allows government agencies to process debit or credit card payments. You cannot pay the fee directly to Pay.gov.

The Department of the Treasury ensures that Pay.gov is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant. This security standard is a set of requirements designed to ensure all companies processing, storing, or transmitting credit card information maintain a secure environment.

For your security, we will destroy your Form G-1450 after processing it, regardless of whether we accept or reject your application, petition, or request.

Third-Party Payments

Anyone authorized to use a credit card may pay for your application, petition, or request. The cardholder must complete Form G-1450, sign it, and give it to you to submit with your filing.

Declined Credit Cards

If a credit card is declined, we will not attempt to process the credit card payment again. We will reject your application, petition, or request for lack of payment.

Rejection Notices

If we reject your filing, we will send you a notice explaining why we rejected it.

If you file a corrected application, petition, or request, and wish to pay again by credit card, you will need to include a new Form G-1450.

Avoid Immigration Scams

Learn how to protect yourself from common immigration services scams, and where to report suspected fraud, at Avoid Scams.

And remember, the current versions of all USCIS forms are always available for free at uscis.gov/forms.

If you file your form online, the system will guide you through the process of paying your fees with a credit, debit, or prepaid card. Bank account withdrawals are also available when paying online. Once you are ready to submit your form, the system will automatically direct you to the secure Department of the Treasury site, pay.gov, to pay your fees online.

We only use pay.gov to process fees. Always check the website address before you pay. Beware of scam websites and scammers who may pretend to be a USCIS website.

If you mail your form to a USCIS Lockbox facility, you may pay your fees with a debit, credit, or prepaid card. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Complete and sign Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions.
2. Place the form on top of your application, petition, or request.
3. Mail the entire package to the appropriate USCIS Lockbox.

If we accept your filing, we will:

• Charge your card for the proper amount; and
• Destroy your Form G-1450 to protect your credit information (we will destroy it even if we reject your filing and do not process your payment).

You will see a charge from USCIS on your card statement.

For general filing information, see the Form Filing Tips webpage.

If we approve your petition, application, or request and the payment has not been properly funded or you subsequently dispute payment of the fee, we may revoke, rescind, or cancel the approval with notice (for example, by issuing a Notice of Intent to Revoke). We will not separately bill you for the unpaid fee. If you receive a Notice of Intent to Revoke, you may respond with payment of the correct fee amount.

When you send a payment, you agree to pay for a government service. Filing and biometric service fees are final and nonrefundable, regardless of any action we take on your application, petition, or request, or if you withdraw your request. Please refer to the form you filed for additional information, or you may call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability: TTY 800-767-1833).

We are funded largely by application and petition fees. Recognizing that some applicants cannot pay the filing fees, we established a fee waiver process for certain forms and benefit types. We will approve a fee waiver only if you clearly demonstrate that you are unable to pay the filing fees. We carefully consider the merits of each fee waiver request before making a decision. Visit the Additional Information on Filing a Fee Waiver page to learn more.