USCIS Fees Changed on October 16, 2026: New Official Amounts for Asylum, Parole and TPS Filings

As of October 16, 2026, four groups of immigration fees collected by USCIS have new official amounts: the annual fee for a pending asylum application rose from $102 to $105; the immigration parole fee on Form I-131, from $1,020 to $1,050; the fee for an initial employment authorization request (Form I-765) for asylum applicants, parolees and TPS beneficiaries, from $560 to $570; and the Form I-821 TPS fee, from $510 to $520. USCIS states that a request postmarked on or after October 16 without the correct fee will be rejected.

What USCIS announced

USCIS reported that it issued a Federal Register notice adjusting, for fiscal year 2027, certain immigration fees created by the law known as H.R. 1. In the announcement, the agency describes the adjustments as minor and states that they account for inflation recorded between July 2025 and July 2026.

The date that organizes the change is October 16, 2026. According to USCIS, the new amounts are effective on that date, and the reference point for mailed requests is the postmark date, not the day the envelope is opened or processed by the agency.

The announcement is not a general schedule of all USCIS fees. It covers only the H.R. 1 fees listed in the notice, tied to asylum, immigration parole and TPS (Temporary Protected Status). Other practical information fronts, such as reporting a change of address on Form AR-11, have their own rules and forms, described in a separate article.

The complete table of new amounts

The table USCIS published in the announcement lists the previous and new amounts as follows:

• Annual Asylum Application Fee: from $102 to $105 — an increase of $3.
• Form I-131 — Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records — immigration parole fee: from $1,020 to $1,050 — an increase of $30.
• Form I-765 — Application for Employment Authorization — initial request for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) by an asylum applicant, a parolee or a TPS beneficiary: from $560 to $570 — an increase of $10 in each of the three categories.
• Form I-821 — Application for Temporary Protected Status: from $510 to $520 — an increase of $10.

The largest increase in absolute terms is the parole fee, at $30. The increases for the initial I-765 and the I-821 are $10, and the increase for the annual asylum fee is $3. The table in the announcement lists exactly these items; no other amount appears as changed in that document.

Why these fees exist: H.R. 1 and the annual adjustment

On July 22, 2025, USCIS published a Federal Register notice announcing the implementation of the H.R. 1 immigration-related fees. Beginning in fiscal year 2026, and continuing for each subsequent fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adjusts some of these fees for inflation, as specified in H.R. 1 itself.

The fiscal year 2027 adjustment is therefore part of an annual mechanism set out in the original notice, not a one-off schedule. In the notice published in the Federal Register on October 1, 2026 (document 2026-20187, 91 FR 62540), USCIS reports that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by approximately 3.36 percent between July 2025 and July 2026, from 323.048 to 333.918, and that, under H.R. 1, each fee is rounded down, generally to the next lowest multiple of $10; the annual asylum fee is rounded down to the nearest dollar.

This annual design means the H.R. 1 amounts have their own reference date, different from the dates of other government schedules. The visa calendar, for example, follows the monthly logic described in the article on status options for people already in the U.S. and on the pages for each category.

The postmark rule, as stated in the notice

The central point of the announcement is the USCIS statement on the cutoff date: a request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026, for a benefit that requires one of these fees, includes the new amount for the specific benefit requested. Any request postmarked on or after that date without the proper filing fee will be rejected, the agency states.

As described in the notice, requests postmarked before October 16 follow the previous schedule, and requests postmarked on or after October 16 follow the new schedule. The rejection USCIS mentions is the refusal of the request at filing, for an incorrect fee; the announcement does not describe it as a decision on the merits or on the requirements of the benefit.

October 16 is the effective date of the new amounts, not a final deadline for filing requests. The notice does not announce the closure of a category, a program or a filing window: it changes the amounts of specific fees as of a date.

Each item in the table, explained by its official name

The Annual Asylum Application Fee appears under that name in the USCIS alert. In the Federal Register notice, the corresponding line is identified as the annual fee for a pending asylum application tied to Form I-589, the Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. The previous amount was $102 and the new amount is $105.

Form I-765 is the Application for Employment Authorization, the request for employment authorization. The adjustment cited in the notice applies to the initial EAD request in three situations named in the table: asylum applicant, parolee and TPS beneficiary. It is the same form discussed, in another context, in the article on the Social Security Number, a document issued by another agency, the Social Security Administration.

Form I-821 is the Application for Temporary Protected Status, the request tied to TPS. The fee for this form rose from $510 to $520.

Form I-131 is the Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records. The adjusted item is specifically the immigration parole fee associated with this form, which rose from $1,020 to $1,050.

The scope of the notice: what it does not announce

The announcement is about amounts. It does not announce a change in the requirements of the benefits cited, in the existing categories or in the forms themselves: the names and purposes of Forms I-131, I-765 and I-821 remain the same in the published table.

Table 1 of the Federal Register notice also records H.R. 1 items that kept the same amount: the initial asylum fee on Form I-589 ($100), the renewal of an asylum applicant EAD ($275, an item that, the table note records, H.R. 1 does not subject to adjustment), the renewals of parole and TPS EADs ($280), the Special Immigrant Juvenile fee on Form I-360 ($250) and the I-94 immigration fee ($24).

The document is also not a schedule of all immigration fees in the United States. Petitions and requests outside the H.R. 1 list do not appear in the notice, and their amounts are not the subject of this specific adjustment. The organization of the documents for each process remains described in the guide to essential documents to start the assessment.

Likewise, the notice does not address processing times, visa availability or queues by category. Those topics have their own government sources and calendars, such as the Department of State’s monthly visa bulletin, the pages for each form on the USCIS website and the official USCIS data on green cards for Brazilians. Traffic and everyday-life rules, such as Florida’s Move Over law, likewise follow their own state and federal sources.

Frequently asked questions

Which USCIS fees changed on October 16, 2026?

According to the USCIS table: the Annual Asylum Application Fee ($102 to $105), the immigration parole fee on Form I-131 ($1,020 to $1,050), the fee for an initial employment authorization request on Form I-765 for asylum applicants, parolees and TPS beneficiaries ($560 to $570), and the Form I-821 TPS fee ($510 to $520).

What happens to a request postmarked on or after October 16 with the old fee?

USCIS states that any request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026 without the proper filing fee will be rejected. The announcement ties the rejection to the absence of the correct fee for the benefit requested.

Is October 16, 2026 a final deadline for filing requests?

No — the text of the announcement states that October 16 is the date the new amounts take effect. The notice does not announce a final deadline for a category or a program; it defines from when the new schedule applies to postmarked requests.

Why are these fees adjusted every year?

According to USCIS, H.R. 1 provides that, beginning in fiscal year 2026 and in each subsequent fiscal year, DHS adjusts some of these fees for inflation. The fiscal year 2027 adjustment corresponds to inflation from July 2025 to July 2026, described by the agency as a minor adjustment.

Does the adjustment apply to all USCIS forms?

No. The table in the announcement lists only the H.R. 1 fees tied to asylum, immigration parole and TPS: the annual asylum fee, the I-131 (parole fee), the initial I-765 in the three categories cited, and the I-821. Other forms do not appear as changed in this notice.

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