New USCIS Fees Start October 16. The Court Already Changed Its Own on October 1.

Your check is already written. If it reaches USCIS on or after October 16, 2026 and it is short by ten dollars, they do not cash it and process your case — they reject the whole package and mail it back to you. By the time it lands in your mailbox, your work permit may have expired.

Three Federal Register notices published October 1, 2026 raised a set of immigration fees created by H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Pub. L. 119-21 (July 4, 2025). They take effect October 16, 2026. A separate Department of Justice notice raised the same statutory fees for filings made in immigration court, and that one took effect on October 1 — it is already in force. Which means that right now, for two of these forms, the price depends on whether you file with USCIS or with the court.

Which notice governs what

Three notices, three agencies, one effective date of October 16, 2026:

• USCIS fees — Fiscal Year 2027 Inflation Adjustment to H.R. 1 Immigration Fees, 91 FR 62540.
• CBP fees — Certain DHS Immigration-Related Fees Required by HR-1: Fiscal Year 2027 Adjustments for Inflation, 91 FR 62534.
• ICE enforcement fees — a companion DHS notice at 91 FR 62542.

And the one that is already operative: Inflation Adjustment for EOIR OBBBA Fees for Certain DHS Forms; Fiscal Year 2027, 91 FR 61447, effective October 1, 2026, covering DHS forms filed with an immigration court. That notice does not touch EOIR’s own forms — the EOIR-26 appeal, the motion to reopen, the EOIR-42A and 42B — which changed on October 1 under a separate schedule I went through in New EOIR Filing Fees Start October 1, 2026.

Every adjustment comes from the same arithmetic. Each H.R. 1 fee carries its own annual escalator tied to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1802(c), 1803(a)(3), 1808(b)(2). The CPI-U rose from 323.048 in July 2025 to 333.918 in July 2026 — 3.36 percent. The statutes then round, and the rounding rule is not the same in every section, which is why some of these fees moved and some did not.

The USCIS amounts, effective October 16

On the CBP side: parole into the United States goes from $1,020 to $1,050; ESTA from $40.27 to $40.62; EVUS from $30.75 to $31.75; the land-border I-94 stays at $24, which with the existing $6 fee is still $30.

Why the asylum fee didn’t move and the EAD did

This is worth understanding, because it tells you where next year’s increases land.

The asylum application fee under 8 U.S.C. § 1802 is $100. Apply 3.36 percent and you get $3.36. But § 1802(c) rounds the adjustment “to the next lowest multiple of $10” — so $3.36 becomes zero and the fee stays at $100. The same thing happens to the $280 renewal EADs: 3.36 percent of $280 is $9.41, which rounds to nothing. The $560 initial EAD produced $18.82, which rounds down to $10, so it went to $570.

Two consequences. First, a fee that sits just under a $10 boundary can stay flat for years and then jump the moment the accumulated base clears it. Second, the annual asylum fee behaves differently from all of them, because 8 U.S.C. § 1808(b)(2)(B) rounds “down to the nearest dollar” rather than to a multiple of ten. That is why it moved by exactly $3, to $105, and why it will move every single year.

One fee has no escalator at all. The renewal or extension fee for an asylum applicant’s employment authorization is set by 8 U.S.C. § 1810 at “not less than $275,” and that section contains no inflation provision. It stays at $275 until DHS changes it by rule.

The fee that is not a filing fee

The annual asylum fee is the one that catches people, and it is not really a fee on a filing at all. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1808(a), for each calendar year an asylum application remains pending, the applicant owes it. Asylum cases pend for years. This is a recurring obligation, and nothing about it arrives looking like a bill you recognize.

If your I-589 has been pending since 2025, you have an annual fee for each year it has been pending, and the FY 2027 amount is $105.

None of this can be waived

Read the statutes and the same sentence appears in section after section: “Fees required to be paid under this section shall not be waived or reduced.” It is in § 1802(e) for the asylum fee, § 1803(a)(5), (b)(5) and (c)(5) for the initial EADs, § 1808(d) for the annual asylum fee, § 1809(d) and § 1811(d) for the parole and TPS renewal EADs, and § 1810(d) for the asylum renewal EAD.

A Form I-912 does nothing here. Inability to pay is not an exception Congress wrote into these sections. If you have been operating on the assumption that a fee waiver will cover an asylum-based EAD, that assumption is wrong and it has been wrong since H.R. 1 took effect.

Immigration court is not identical on this point. EOIR’s September 29 notice says the court “will continue to reject any filings that are not accompanied by a proper filing fee or request for an applicable fee waiver” — so a fee waiver request remains part of court practice generally. But it cannot create an exception the statute forecloses. Where the H.R. 1 section says the fee shall not be waived, that is the end of it.

The two-date trap

Here is where this gets genuinely confusing, and where a careful filer still gets it wrong.

The EOIR notice effective October 1 set these amounts for DHS forms filed with an immigration court: I-485, $1,590; I-601, $1,100; I-821, $520; I-589, $100; annual asylum fee, $105.

The USCIS notice effective October 16 sets the I-821 at $520 and the annual asylum fee at $105 as well — but not until the 16th.

So between October 1 and October 15, an I-821 filed with the immigration court costs $520 and the same form filed with USCIS costs $510. Two correct answers to the same question, fifteen days apart, depending only on where the filing goes. File the court amount at the service center in that window and it comes back.

And the triggering event is not the same either. USCIS’s notice is explicit: “Any immigration benefit request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026 without the proper filing fee will be rejected.” Postmark. Not receipt, not signature date. EOIR works off the filing date. If something is in the mail right now at the current amount and the postmark falls on the 16th or later, it is at risk.

What a rejection actually costs

A rejected filing is not a late filing. It is not a filing at all. There is no receipt date, no receipt notice, and nothing pending.

That distinction is the whole reason to care about ten dollars:

• An EAD renewal. The automatic extension of an expiring EAD depends on a properly filed renewal. If the renewal was rejected, there is no timely filing for the extension to run from, and the gap in work authorization is real.
• A TPS re-registration. These run inside a registration period. A package rejected in October and refiled in November may be outside the window, and late re-registration requires good cause.
• A combined package. If the I-765 and the I-821 go in together and the I-765 fee is short, you can lose the receipt date on both.
• Anything with a statutory deadline. A rejection does not stop a clock, because the clock never acknowledged you.

I have seen more relief lost to filing mechanics than to the merits. The merits at least get argued.

If someone in your family is detained or in removal proceedings, the timeline is shorter than the fee calendar and it starts now. Call (562) 495-0554 or book a free consultation at blerner.timetap.com.

The enforcement fees

Two amounts in the October 16 notices are not filing fees at all. Under H.R. 1 § 100016, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1814, a person ordered removed in absentia who is later arrested by ICE is charged $5,300, up from $5,130. Under § 100017, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1815, a person apprehended between ports of entry is charged the same $5,300.

Note what the first one is attached to: an in absentia order. If you have an in absentia removal order you believe was entered without proper notice, the motion to reopen is the remedy, and under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii) a motion to reopen based on lack of notice has no filing deadline — and 8 U.S.C. § 1812(g)(3)(A) exempts that motion from the court’s motion fee entirely. One of the few filings in this entire structure that Congress left free.

What to do in the next eleven days

File before October 16 if you can. The current amount is correct for anything postmarked October 15 or earlier. If the package is ready, mail it this week and keep the postmark receipt.

If you cannot, use the new amount. Do not split the difference and do not round. The notices publish exact figures.

Check which agency you are filing with. Immigration court and USCIS are on different dates right now. For court filings, the amounts in force since October 1 are the ones above, and the EOIR schedule for the court’s own forms — appeals, motions to reopen, cancellation of removal — is set out in New EOIR Filing Fees Start October 1, 2026.

If you have a pending asylum application, calendar the annual fee. It is $105 for FY 2027, it recurs every calendar year the case is pending, and it cannot be waived.

If you are renewing an EAD, work backward from the expiration date, not from the fee change. A rejection costs weeks, and weeks are what the automatic extension was supposed to buy you.

The dollar amounts here are small relative to what is at stake in these cases. The rejection is not. A $10 shortfall and a lost receipt date are the same thing, and only one of them sounds serious.

If you are filing something in the next two weeks and you are not certain which amount applies, that is a twenty-minute question. Book a consultation at blerner.timetap.com or call (562) 495-0554.

This article is general information about United States immigration law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case. Law Offices of Brian D. Lerner, A Professional Corporation, 3233 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803. Brian D. Lerner is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.