CEM REPORT, MIGRATION | President Joe Biden of the United States has proposed a new fee increment that will see employers of foreign workers pay more.
The proposal pushes more of the cost of funding the agency that oversees the nation’s immigration system onto companies that employ foreign workers while ensuring that asylum seekers continue to pay nothing to apply for protections in the U.S.
Los Angeles Times reports that the proposal also includes new fee exemptions for victims of human trafficking and other crimes while keeping prices for people applying to become U.S. citizens relatively static.
A senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, Julia Gelatt, was quoted saying that keeping fees for poor applicants at zero and fees for humanitarian visas and new citizens low indicates that the “administration is committed to facilitating legal pathways for migrants and eliminating barriers to immigration and citizenship, particularly for vulnerable migrants”.
She further noted that putting the burden of the largest fee increases on sponsors of temporary workers, by contrast, shows the “administration’s mixed feelings about the value of temporary work visas”.
She added that the proposal reflects the administration’s values.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is primarily funded by immigration-form fees, will formalize the plan by issuing a proposed rule Tuesday. The agency is required to review its fee structure every two years, but new fees haven’t been added since 2016, during the Barack Obama administration.
