The Trump administration on Monday introduced a proposal that would make applying for U.S. citizenship significantly more expensive for legal immigrants, raising application costs by $570 while ending fee waivers and discounted rates for applicants with limited incomes.
Under the proposed rule from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the cost of a citizenship application would rise from $760 to $1,330 for paper filings and from $710 to $1,280 for applications submitted online. Fees for asking USCIS to review a denied citizenship application would also increase, climbing by $645.
The proposal would further scrap fee waivers in naturalization cases and eliminate a reduced-fee option for immigrants with household incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level. Exemptions for members of the military applying for citizenship would not be affected.
The revisions would not be implemented right away because they are part of a proposed regulation that must still move through the federal rulemaking process. Members of the public will have 60 days to submit comments either supporting or opposing the changes.
In the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, argued that higher fees are needed to cover the full cost of processing naturalization applications, particularly as the Trump administration moves to subject applicants to more intensive vetting. USCIS, unlike most federal agencies, relies heavily on application fees to fund its operations.
DHS acknowledged that previous administrations kept citizenship-related fees comparatively lower than fees for other immigration benefits in order to “promote citizenship and integration.” Officials said the Trump administration is now pursuing a different approach.
“Although DHS has historically limited the fees for (citizenship-related applications) to fulfill previous administrations’ priorities of encouraging naturalization, DHS no longer believes naturalization benefit requests should get lower fees at the potential expense of other immigration benefits,” the agency said in the proposed regulation.
Doug Rand, who served as a senior USCIS official during the Biden administration, raised doubts about the justification for the proposed increases.
“The only credible explanation for jacking up citizenship fees in isolation is that Trump 2.0 is in a hurry to create even more undue barriers for legal immigrants,” Rand said.
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The U.S. government has long encouraged legal immigrants to complete the citizenship process, known formally as naturalization. Typically, those eligible for U.S. citizenship are legal permanent residents who have had a green card for three or five years, depending on their cases.
Citizenship applicants generally must pass an English and civics test, and fulfill other requirements, such as lacking any serious criminal history.
As part of its immigration crackdown, the second Trump administration has sought to restrict and tighten access to legal immigration benefits, including by adding more layers to the vetting process.
For citizenship applications, the administration has moved to more aggressively probe a requirement that applicants demonstrate a “good moral character.” It has also resumed a long-dormant practice, known as neighborhood checks, to speak to the neighbors and coworkers of those requesting citizenship.
The Trump administration has escalated efforts to denaturalize foreign-born American citizens accused of obtaining their citizenship illegally or through fraud, including by concealing criminal conduct on their applications.
