USCIS to Raise Immigration Fees for Asylum, Work Permits and TPS on October 16
Immigration applications filed with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will cost more from October 16, 2026, under a fee schedule covering asylum, employment authorization, parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Guidance updated by USCIS indicates the revised amounts stem from the yearly inflation adjustment applied to selected immigration fees created by H.R. 1. Depending on which benefit is being sought, applicants will pay between $3 and $30 more, and the new amounts apply to paperwork postmarked on or after October 16.
USCIS has cautioned that a filing submitted with the wrong fee could be turned down. That warning matters most to foreign nationals planning to send in their paperwork close to the date the changes take effect.
For the annual asylum application fee, the amount moves from $102 to $105, a difference of $3.
Among the affected filings, the biggest single increase falls on the immigration parole fee for Form I-131, which goes up by $30, from $1,020 to $1,050.
Higher charges also await those filing Form I-765 for a first Employment Authorization Document (EAD). An asylum applicant will pay $570 instead of $560, while parole and TPS applicants filing for initial employment authorization will face the same $570 figure, also up from $560.
Form I-821, which is used by people seeking Temporary Protected Status, will cost $520, an increase from $510.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the new amounts are a reflection of inflation recorded between July 2025 and July 2026.
Which fee an applicant owes is decided by the filing date. Any request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026, must carry the revised amount for the benefit requested, while those sent earlier fall under the previous schedule. Applicants planning to file before the change should therefore track the postmark date, not the date they completed the forms.
Because USCIS can reject a submission that lacks the correct fee, affected forms sent from October 16 risk being returned even when the gap between the old and new amount is only a few dollars.
The adjustment is the latest in a string of revisions to US immigration charges that have hit asylum seekers, foreign workers and TPS applicants.
New fees under H.R. 1 took effect in July 2025 for asylum, parole, employment authorization and TPS applications, among them a $100 asylum application fee, a $550 initial EAD fee and a tenfold jump in the TPS application fee, which moved from $50 to $500.
A further round of changes came on January 1, 2026, when the first annual inflation adjustment under H.R. 1 was applied. The asylum application fee went from $100 to $102, initial EAD filings by asylum, parole and TPS applicants rose from $550 to $560, and the TPS application fee climbed from $500 to $510.
Separately, a $1,000 immigration parole fee was introduced in October 2025. Not paying the required fee can stop USCIS from granting parole, which adds to the expenses of foreign nationals relying on humanitarian and public-benefit parole programmes.
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