U.S. fees for seeking citizenship may rise

MURRAY — Mildret Shurtleff says she has wanted to apply for citizenship for years, but the cost has been a hindrance.

The Salt Lake homemaker says she took out a loan to cover the $330 application fee and the $70 fingerprint fee. Shurtleff, a green card holder originally from Mexico, shook her head when she heard those fees could increase.

"I cannot even think about prices raising for people like me who don't have that much," said Shurtleff, a mother of three and a schoolteacher's wife.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced this week that it wants to raise the application fee for citizenship to $595, as part of a broader fee increase proposal for the applications it handles. The agency also wants to raise the fingerprinting fee for applicants to $80.

The proposal is undergoing a 60-day comment period and would take effect in June at the earliest.

The agency said the proposed increase averages 66 percent in actual costs to applicants, and would reduce processing times by an average 20 percent by the end of fiscal year 2009. In Utah, the current processing time is within six months for a citizenship application.

"If it's a matter of more money to make things go faster, I'm OK with that," said Jorge Luzuriaga, a citizenship applicant living in Provo.

The agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, is fee driven, meaning that it receives no appropriation from Congress, said Robert Mather, director of the CIS Boise Field Office and acting director of the Utah Field Office.

"This is an important step forward for our agency," Mather said. "We fully expect processing times to improve further."

As with all fee increases, the agency expects a rush of applications before the rate hikes can take effect. Mathis said the largest number of applications are for green cards and citizenship. Those application times will probably be among those that see temporary increases, he said.

"Will there be processing increases in some areas? Yes," Mathis said. "Will we be able to bounce back quickly? Yes."

The last comprehensive fee adjustment was in 1998, when fees rose by an average 76 percent. President Bush is requesting the current increase in his budget.