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When President Donald Trump signed “The Big Beautiful Bill” into law in July, the massive legislation included an overhaul of several immigration-related fees for applications and forms commonly used to seek asylum, appeal court decisions and apply for work permits.
The fee increases and the establishment of new ones are part of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the immigration system.
The cost of appealing an immigration judge decision rose from $110 to $900, while the fee for people seeking temporary protected status jumped from $50 to $500.
To some Indiana immigration attorneys, the immigration-related fee increases or new fees came with seemingly no warning and appeared to be more of a deterrent to immigration than a way to cover agency costs.
John Broyles, a partner with Indianapolis-based Broyles & Ricafort, PC, said he had several questions and concerns regarding the fee increases.
“What was wrong with the original fees? Were they not covering the costs?” Broyles said.
Broyles said there was no analysis provided or any explanation he had seen as to why there needed to be fee increases, something he believes is being done to disincentivize people from applying for asylum or filing other immigration-related applications.
Some fees are five times higher than before, he noted.
Sarah Burrow, director at Lewis & Kappes and president of the Indiana chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the fee increases “devastating” and “terrible,” with an impact felt by the most vulnerable population.
Burrow said her firm has clients in court that have been in federal custody and not able to work, with their families hit with as much as $1,500 in additional fees.
For someone filing an asylum application fee, the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill changed the application from being free to carrying a $100 cost.
“$100 is a lot of money, especially for someone who may be a new arrival,” Burrow said, adding, “there is nothing beautiful about what this administration is doing in the context of immigration, not a single thing.”
In late October, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland issued an order in Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, et al. temporarily staying the annual asylum fee, according to the USCIS.
Impact of fee increases
New fees for asylum applications or increases to already established fees have become a fixture of immigrant policy in Trump’s second term.
Trump’s Sept. 19 proclamation included imposing a $100,000 annual fee on new H-1B visas and rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.
Like the asylum fee, the H-1B visa fee drew its own legal challenge.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump administration, alleging that Trump’s new $100,000 visa fees for the H-1B program, widely used by Silicon Valley, violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for D.C..
About 85,000 new H-1B visas have been available each year, although Congress exempts universities from that cap, with the government receiving about 425,000 H-1B visa petitions in 2024.
By comparison, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service reported it had 1,446,908 pending affirmative asylum applications at the end of 2024.
Burrow said the rise in asylum application fees are most often mentioned by clients.
She said she didn’t think anyone could have anticipated such large fee increases or the imposition of fees for applications that previously had no cost attached.
The Lewis & Kappes attorney also noted that USCIS announced it was phasing out check and money order payments.
USCIS announced in August it would accept only ACH debit transactions or credit card payments after Oct. 28.
“We have a responsibility to the American people to operate as efficiently and securely as possible,” said USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser in a news release. “Over 90% of our payments come from checks and money orders, causing processing delays and increasing the risk of fraud and lost payments. America deserves better, and we intend to deliver.”
Broyles said he had a client in a non-lawful permanent resident cancellation case who paid a $130 filling fee prior to the Big Beautiful Bill’s passage.
He said if the client, who won her case, filed the case today, she would have to pay $1,630.
“I’m not sure my client could afford that,” Broyles said.
Broyles stressed that he has been practicing for 27 years and has seen periodic fee adjustments, but not something as dramatic as fee disparities with the aforementioned case.
“They’re a lot. It’s all just the overall plan of this administration to discourage people at any means to remain here,” Broyles said.•
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