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United States | DHS to increase premium processing fees effective March 1

The Department of Homeland Security has scheduled a final rule to be published in the Federal Register on Jan. 12, 2026, that increases premium processing fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, effective March 1, 2026.

Key Points:

  • The updated fees will apply to premium processing requests postmarked on or after March 1, 2026.
  • According to the Federal Register Notice (FRN), the increase reflects “the amount of inflation from June 2023 through June 2025 according to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.”
  • Following is an extracted summary of the premium processing fee increases included in the FRN:
Rule provisions Description of changes to provisions
1. Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker The premium processing fee for petitions requesting H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant classification will increase from $1,685 to $1,780.  The premium processing fee for all other available Form I-129 classifications (E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H3, L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1, TN-1 and TN-2) will increase from $2,805 to $2,965.
2. Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers The premium processing fee for employment-based (EB) classifications E11, E12, E21 (non-National Interest Waiver), E31, E32, EW3, as well as recently available E13 and E21 (NIW), will increase from $2,805 to $2,965.
3. Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status This premium processing fees for applications requesting F-1, F-2, M-1, M-2, J-1 and J-2 nonimmigrant status will increase from $1,965 to $2,075.
4. Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization The premium processing fee for eligible Form I-765 applications will increase from $1,685 to $1,780.

Additional Information: USCIS has implemented updated regular processing filing fees for certain immigration benefit requests, effective Jan. 1, 2026.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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