When Congress wrote immigration fees into H.R. 1 last July, it also wrote in an escalator. Each fiscal year from 2026 onward, DHS must adjust the statutory amounts for inflation using the consumer price index. The first adjustment arrived in three Federal Register notices in November 2025. The changes are small in dollars and large in consequence, because a filing that carries last year's amount after the cutoff is rejected outright.
The USCIS notice
Published November 21, 2025 at 90 FR 52693, signed by Director Edlow. The method: the percentage change in CPI-U from July 2024 to July 2025, which came to 2.705 percent, applied to each fee and rounded down to the next lowest multiple of $10. The annual asylum fee alone rounds to the nearest dollar.
The new amounts apply to any benefit request postmarked on or after January 1, 2026.
| Fee | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Asylum application, I-589 | $100 | $100 |
| Annual asylum fee | $100 | $102 |
| Initial work permit, asylum applicant | $550 | $560 |
| Work permit renewal, asylum applicant | $275 | $275 |
| Initial work permit, parolee | $550 | $560 |
| Work permit renewal, parolee | $275 | $280 |
| Initial work permit, TPS | $550 | $560 |
| Work permit renewal, TPS | $275 | $280 |
| Work permit on re-parole, I-131 | $275 | $280 |
| TPS application, I-821 | $500 | $510 |
| Special Immigrant Juvenile, I-360 | $250 | $250 |
Two oddities follow from the rounding rule. The $100 asylum fee and the $250 SIJ fee do not move, because 2.7 percent of either is less than $10. And the asylum work permit renewal stays at $275 while the parole and TPS renewals rise to $280, because the statute permits no adjustment to that particular line. Nobody designed this; it is what happens when a rounding rule meets a statute drafted line by line.
The CBP notice
Published November 19 at 90 FR 52085, also effective January 1. The parole fee, collected by CBP, USCIS and ICE, rises from $1,000 to $1,020. The Form I-94 charge at land border ports stays at $30 in total, made up of the $24 H.R. 1 fee and the separate $6 land border fee. The ESTA authorization for visa-waiver travelers rises from $40 to $40.27, and the EVUS enrollment for certain Chinese passport holders from $30 to $30.75. Cents, in other words, but statutory cents.
The ICE notice
Published November 20 at 90 FR 52425, effective December 1, 2025, a month earlier than the others. Two enforcement fees rise from $5,000 to $5,130: the fee charged to a person ordered removed in absentia and later arrested by ICE, and the fee charged to an inadmissible person arrested between ports of entry. Neither can be waived. The in absentia fee does not apply if the removal order is rescinded, which is one more reason to move to reopen a case that was decided in your absence.
The annual asylum fee complication
The USCIS notice records something that has not been widely reported. On October 30, 2025, under an order in Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project v. USCIS in the District of Maryland, USCIS paused implementation of the annual asylum fee notices it had begun sending. Anyone who received one has been told to disregard it pending updated instructions. The court order does not stop the amount from being adjusted to $102; it stops, for now, the collection. If you have a notice in a drawer, leave it there and watch for the replacement.
What to do
- Mind the postmark. A filing mailed on or after January 1, 2026 needs the 2026 amount. The margin is $5 or $10; the penalty is a rejected filing, and for anything with a deadline a rejected filing can be fatal.
- Check the G-1055 fee schedule on the USCIS site before you mail anything in January. The base DHS fees and the H.R. 1 fees are listed separately, and both must be right.
- Do not pay a 2025 annual asylum fee notice. Wait for the new instructions the court order requires.
The sums involved are trivial by the standards of legal fees. The rejection rule is not. Round up, check twice, and keep the receipts.