U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ annual inflation adjustment required by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) kicked in at midnight on 16 October 2026. Any immigration benefit mailed today or later must include the higher fees or USCIS will reject the package. The Federal Register notice published on 1 October listed the new amounts: the asylum application fee rises from $102 to $105, initial Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for asylum applicants, humanitarian parolees and TPS holders increase from $560 to $570, Temporary Protected Status (Form I-821) climbs from $510 to $520 and the parole application fee (Form I-131) jumps from $1,020 to $1,050. Although most employment-based petitions such as H-1B or L-1 remain unchanged, mobility managers should update fee charts immediately because the affected applications are common in global mobility portfolios—particularly advance parole re-entry documents for assignees awaiting “green cards.” Filing with the old amount will result in a rejection, loss of priority date and, in some circumstances, a missed cap or statutory deadline. Law firms report that courier services were flooded overnight with replacement checks as employers raced to swap out payment before the last pickup on 15 October. Companies that rely on automated payment platforms should verify that their systems reflect the new fee table; several popular immigration-management vendors pushed updates only this morning. HR teams are advised to inventory any signature packets prepared before 16 October and re-issue government checks where necessary. Beyond immediate cost impacts, the adjustment is a reminder that the H.R. 1 mechanism now mandates annual tweaks pegged to CPI-U. Budget owners should therefore forecast a roughly 3-to-4 percent year-over-year increase in humanitarian and parole-related filings. USCIS has hinted that a broader fee rule covering employment-based categories is still slated for early 2027; today’s changes are a preview of higher costs across the board. Practical tip: instruct assignees who self-file TPS or advance-parole renewals to verify the correct fee on the USCIS web page before mailing and consider including a cover letter flagging the enclosed October 2026 amounts to avoid lockbox confusion.
Source: Federal Register
