LETS DO THE MATH

[Mariye & Ky 172]

Just to point out some of the basic flaws in your thinking here:

Medical Exam Fees are not set by nor paid to the US Government. They are determined by and paid to Local Contracted Medical Establishments.

Second, you have not considered the cost of document transits. You don't mail the initial packet directly to the Service Center that processes it. You also don't send it directly to NVC, USCIS does that and then NVC forwards it to the US Embassy in the country of interview.

Third, what about the cost of background checks on both the petitioner and all beneficiaries. Don't you think it costs money for that?

Fourth, as others have mentioned there is the additional overhead. Last time your car was worked on in a professional shop you paid a "Shop Fee" that covered the basic existence of the shop and the cost of things like paper towels and toilet paper for the employees to use.

Fifth, the material for printing the actual Visas and eventually greencards cost the government money.

When we pay our fees we're supporting the whole machine not just the few cogs that touch our exact case file. It has to be that way or the system couldn't be self-funded and then we wouldn't have the option to bring our loved ones here.

Bob & Anna, I fully agree also on this. I guess if the fees are the general criticism around this thread, then the OP had suggested an idea in a couple of other posts about a stable income thru Trucking! Maybe the OP might make a call back to his former job, or inquire online like he had suggested to others. Who knows, with all that extra income and his fiance by his side, his focus might be on the family unit vs. the singular unit in part of the entity thereof... US Immigration, et.al.

OP? Could this idea of yours be helpful to remedy your beef on immigration costs if fees for your fiance and all three of your kids are too high? Remember you said this?

Hi YUANDDAN. Just wanted to know if you gave my idea for your problem any consideration. I bet I am the only one who has actually given you a rock-solid way that you can remedy this situation. I am concerned about you and your fiance. Everyone else is looking at your situation and has no clue how to actually help you. You need to help yourself. Put my idea into action. This is between me and you. You need steady income and nothing else besides your fiance with you.

Sorry about that TIM/MAV. My Bad!! The next message that I should receive from you should be that you called them and will be starting soon after you apply online.

Anyway, have a good day!

Mari

[TeddyHoney 42]

Nope, USCIS is supposed to be self funded through the fees they charge to everyone using their services.

Wow. Then to me that's like paying for a Mercedes and getting a Chevy!

[PrestoMN 4]

At this point in the game, I couldn't care less what the process costs and where my money is being used. I just wish I could get my petition approved and move on with my life!

[extremerecluse 32]

Everybody in this website always states that the fees they are required to pay are high. So, I decided to do some simple calculations. I have filed my I-129F for my fiance as well as her three kids. First, I paid $340 in December 2010 to USCIS. I have read posts from senior VJ members that each petition takes about 20 minutes to review and approve or deny. $340 for 20 minutes of service, after the file sits in a pile for 6 months. The case gets transferred to NVC. NVC performs one manhour of work on the file. Then the case gets transferred to the Embassy where two manhours are spent working on my file. I then pay $1,400 for the visa fees and $800 dollars for the medical. After the POE I pay $3,400 for the Adjustment of Status which takes another 2 manhours. Then I pay $400 for lifting of conditions which takes 1 manhour. Now lets add it all up! I come up with $6,320 in fees. Now lets add up the services that were provided. I come up with a whopping 14.3 manhours to provide all services. I will round up to 15 manhours required to perform all services concerning my entire case. I then come up with $421 per manhour. Keep in mind that everything that USCIS and DOS provides is done so without intent to make any profit; a zero sum balance. Lets say that on average that each US Government Employee who handled the case makes an average of $30 per hour. Now, we know that the US Government is taking in $421 for every $30 that is going out. That leaves a net positive cash flow of $391 per manhour worked. Remember that the US Government operates on a zero sum balance sheet; no profit. I am not making any judgements. I am only doing simple math calculations. Can anybody disagree with my numbers? Let me know if you come up with different numbers. Am I making the process too simplistic? Am I not conservative enough in my calculations? Input please.

oh and I forgot. At $391 positive cash flow per average manhour mutliplied by 2,000,000 petitions annually. WOW, that is a lot of money!!!!!!!!! $782,000,000 positive cash flow. Then we subtract overhead. 4 USCIS Service Centers, 1 call center. 200 support staff, building maintenance costs, utilities. This comes no where near $782,000,000

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

This is very faulty reasoning, for reasons states above. Just to add, has anyone mentioned the mailroom? Those people probably spend the most time with the petitions, opening up the packages, checking to see everything is there and signed correctly, carefully attaching everything together, and in order... etc

Have you ever read the mailroom employee rules/protocol? it's wow... "Carefully cut the mailing envelope on all three sides..."

[jaygregory 1]

just a thought but perhaps our efforts would be best spent planning weddings,doing things for the visa and generally making sure things go smoothly and as painlessly as possible for those leaving everything they know to move to the states?

i dont know,just seems a better use of our time, not like we can change the costs or anything.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Wow. Then to me that's like paying for a Mercedes and getting a Chevy!

Really,

See I feel like maybe I paid for a Ford and ended up getting a Lincoln!

I would never say having my wife is worth less to me that the money that isn't in my bank account as a result of my choice to go through this process.

I never felt like I was wasting money of a service from the government but rather that this was a necessary expense to have my wife and little guy with me for the rest of our lives.

What kind of value can you place on that? I feel like it got a bargain, especially now that they've been here for almost 1 and a half years.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

oh and I forgot. At $391 positive cash flow per average manhour mutliplied by 2,000,000 petitions annually. WOW, that is a lot of money!!!!!!!!! $782,000,000 positive cash flow. Then we subtract overhead. 4 USCIS Service Centers, 1 call center. 200 support staff, building maintenance costs, utilities. This comes no where near $782,000,000

Not every petition has the same cumulative fees. Family based immigrant visas have substantially lower fees because there's no adjustment of status application involved. Most employment based applications are generally lower as well, with some notable exceptions such as entrepreneur visas. USCIS also handles green card services, naturalization services, and employment authorization and verification services, as well as services related to immigration enforcement.

USCIS receives nearly 5 million immigration benefit petitions every year, plus over 850,000 naturalization applications. This doesn't include fiancee visa petitions, asylum/refugee status applications, and a myriad of other petitions and applications.

You also didn't note that USCIS has more than 250 offices around the world, including many field offices in practically every state of the US, as well as application support centers, asylum offices, and 31 offices in foreign countries that support US consulates. They also have over 18,000 employees at all of those offices.

USCIS total annual budget is around $2.7 billion. About 90% of that comes from fees they charge to their customers. The fees for each service are determined by dividing the portion of the budget that is allocated from fees according to the relative resources required for each specific petition or application type. USCIS is required by law to review their fee schedule every two years and reapportion fees as appropriate. This is why fees went down for fiancee visa petitions last year, while fees for many other petitions and applications went up.

If you ever hire a contractor to do some work on your house then you'll discover quickly that the cost of getting the work done is substantially more than the sum total of each worker's hourly wages.