screamneagle Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Sat down yesterday to go over all the AOS application forms and supporting documentation before mailing them out the Chicago lock box today. Carefully went over all the entries on the I-485 for both wife and step daughter ... Check! Cover letters ... Check! Passport bio pages, visa copy, I-94 front and back ... check! Birth certificate booklet with translation ... Check! Marriage certificate ... Check! 2 photos with names in their little baggies ... Check! The I-864 with supporting documentation ... Check! The I - 765 with supporting documents and photos ... Check! The I - 131 with supporting documents and photos ... check! Everything appears to be complete and in order. Now comes the part that really hurts! Out comes the check book and I prepare to write the two $1,010 checks for each of the I-485s for my wife and step daughter. I think to myself, "Let me go back one more time to make sure that this figure is correct." Yep, I look at a lot of the recent posts and $1,010 is the figure but ... I think ... let me just take a quick look at the USCIS home page to make absolutely sure $1,010 is correct. I go to the home page ... click on fees for the I-485 and there in nice bold letters it reads, "Filing Fee :$985. (Add $85 biometric fee for a total of $1070! WTF!! Now, my question ... is the fee $1,010 or is the $1,070 something new for the New Year? $1,010 was bad enough but now this? It seems every time you turn around these damn fees keep going up ... and I don't mean by just a little bit! Anyone know if this is something new or did I just miss something in the small print? Link to comment
dnoblett Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Think thats bad, how about paying $450 to file an I-90 to replace a lost green-card, when you do get the card, DO NOT LOOSE IT. Probably do like most do, file the card away is a safe place and carry a photo-copy of the dang thing, even though the rules say to no do that. FEES went up November 23 as a "Thanksgiving Gift" USCIS is saying THANK-YOU VERY MUCH, or Muchas Gracias! http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=92c5e116de9eb210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=5b33aca797e63110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD Hey K-1 is NOT Cheap!!, If you want less expensive, then CR-1!! Link to comment
screamneagle Posted January 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Think thats bad, how about paying $450 to file an I-90 to replace a lost green-card, when you do get the card, DO NOT LOOSE IT. Probably do like most do, file the card away is a safe place and carry a photo-copy of the dang thing, even though the rules say to no do that. FEES went up November 23 as a "Thanksgiving Gift" USCIS is saying THANK-YOU VERY MUCH, or Muchas Gracias! http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=92c5e116de9eb210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=5b33aca797e63110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD Hey K-1 is NOT Cheap!!, If you want less expensive, then CR-1!! Yea, I'm not saying its cheap! What I'm saying is that the fees keep going up but all the headaches with USCIS stay the same! Nothing changes for the better ... nothing gets easier. If anything, its gets more complicated and frustrating. They seem to raise fees on a whim for no other reason than to raise the fees. Service improves? I don't think so. Ever try to talk to someone on the phone at USCIS? They know they've got you by the short hairs and they're going to milk you for all you're worth. In any event, its all history now. If I had Cr-1'd last year I would probably still be waiting for my wife and her daughter to get here ... and I would have all those new changes and benefits at Guangzhou to look forward to. Seems to be a loose/loose situation no matter how you cut it. The government must have a dark room somewhere where officials just sit and think of ways to squeeze every cent they can out of the working man ... think its called Congress. Link to comment
tkgert Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Yeah they like to stick it where it hurts, either in your a$$ OR pocket Link to comment
dnoblett Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Keep in mind the American tax payer is not paying for USCIS, it is the fees paid by the people using them, USCIS is a self funded department. One improvement in service has been the greatly reduced time to process I-130 petitions for immigrant visas. It use to take well over a year some times 2 years for them to process I-130, since the fee increases back in 2007, the processing time of I-130 petitions has been reduced to the same time it takes to process I-129F. This improvement in processing has essentially eliminated the reason K-3 exists, and has made the K-1 also look less atractive, K-1 was atractive once for it's quicker time from filing to Visa, this is no longer the case, timelines show K-1 may save a couple weeks, NOT months to a year in time. Link to comment
tkgert Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Shit and some of us get to pay the fees Twice Link to comment
screamneagle Posted January 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Shit and some of us get to pay the fees Twice Been there ... done that! No fun at all!! I'm still hurting! Had to apologize to my hand for writing the checks! Link to comment
pha Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) Yeah, they increased the fees last November, I filed my case right before that. Got lucky on that. Edited January 12, 2011 by pha (see edit history) Link to comment
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