NEW FEES!! Proposed by USCIS from June 2007!!

[akdiver 3]

thats totally ###### up!! im so angry about the whole raising of fees! ..... then we get punished for doing something legal?!

See, the basic problem here is attitude. It is NOT punishment. It is a fee for services rendered.

and everyone that thinks, that raising the fees is good, probably doesnt have to pay these fees anymore!!!! if you would have to you would be pissed too!so dont blame everybody that thinks its wrong for being aggrevated!

I'd be happy if I didn't pay any fee at all, sure.

But at the same time, I feel lucky that this process even exists at all! I'm willing to bet that in a lot of countries, it doesn't! The government could just as well eliminate marriage-based immigration altogether if it wanted to. To me, the fee simply doesn't matter, I would pay no matter what it is, even if I had to go way into debt to do so. Maybe I'm just more motivated than some people I guess. By the way, I DO still need to pay fees, as I am not done with this process yet.

they just do that because they want to get the most out of us!

Well, duh!! Have you ever told your boss, "Hey, can you give me LESS money, because I really don't feel like I need to get the most out of you that i can?" I didn't think so.

Personally, I think if you can't afford the AOS fees, you can't afford to immigrate.

Precisely. I mean, Christ, it's a $1000 dollars or whatever. That's it!!! That is NOTHING!! Put together a 2-income household and you even if you took it out as a cash advance on a credit card, you could pay it in no time.

All, this bitching about fee increases is just that, bitching. Stop whining already!

Cheers!

AKDiver

[Nina+Matt 0]

@akdiver im definitely going to pay for it, what else am i going to do?

and im also glad that they offer this process! sometimes its just a pain in the butt, but whatever!

i think its the first moment where you just get aggrevated, but in the end you cant really change it"!

"Personally, I think if you can't afford the AOS fees, you can't afford to immigrate."

i think thats a little harsh! so you think youre not allowed to fall in love when you dont have enough money?! you cant change feelings!

@john & annie even with the encreased fee of $905 you still have to pay for your EAD and AP and that stuff right? or is it for everything in total?

[akdiver 3]

i think thats a little harsh! so you think youre not allowed to fall in love when you dont have enough money?! you cant change feelings!

I fell in love with a Ferarri once. I couldn't afford that either.

If you think you can get a better deal, then apply for an immigration process with another country...

Cheers!

AKDiver

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

"Personally, I think if you can't afford the AOS fees, you can't afford to immigrate."

i think thats a little harsh! so you think youre not allowed to fall in love when you dont have enough money?! you cant change feelings!

Not suggesting that at all -- they are proposing $800 or so for new AOS. If someone can't afford that, they certainly can't afford plane fares/at least 3 months without work waiting for an EAD surviving on 1 salary/shipping fees, etc etc.

[John & Annie 0]

@akdiver im definitely going to pay for it, what else am i going to do?

and im also glad that they offer this process! sometimes its just a pain in the butt, but whatever!

i think its the first moment where you just get aggrevated, but in the end you cant really change it"!

"Personally, I think if you can't afford the AOS fees, you can't afford to immigrate."

i think thats a little harsh! so you think youre not allowed to fall in love when you dont have enough money?! you cant change feelings!

@john & annie even with the encreased fee of $905 you still have to pay for your EAD and AP and that stuff right? or is it for everything in total?

The $905 includes all interim benefits and their subsequent renewals, if needed. The only addition would be the biometrics fees, which is also a one time fee for each application.

[WifeOHunkyJohn 2]

i think thats a little harsh! so you think youre not allowed to fall in love when you dont have enough money?! you cant change feelings!

I fell in love with a Ferarri once. I couldn't afford that either.

If you think you can get a better deal, then apply for an immigration process with another country...

Cheers!

AKDiver

You are too funny - I just love your "to the point" comments. You really don't beat about the bush, do you?

Mine was the "Casino Royal" Aston Martin but hubby wasn't for letting me rush out and buy one, at least not right now. But then, his choice was a porsche...

Just because you can't afford something doesn't make the something wrong or harsh or unfair. It just means you make better choices that get you to your goal. And for people who don't want to make the right choices, that's their call to make. For the rest of us, we know that nothing in this world is free, and sometimes you have to pay more for a better service. After all, we all have heard the old saying "you get what you pay for".

I personally have no problem with the fee hike - and as hubby pointed out the interim benefits are included in the AOS under the new proposals. Considering we have been waiting over 8 months so far, I consider the new fees a bargain, especially if it leads to better efficiency for the USCIS.

[Eveline 9]

All it does is make people skip the whole K1/K3 Process and go for AOS right away, it's illegal that way (so nobody gets punished for it) and it's also cheaper.

[akdiver 3]

All it does is make people skip the whole K1/K3 Process and go for AOS right away, it's illegal that way (so nobody gets punished for it) and it's also cheaper.

This can be fixed by eliminating the right to AOS for anyone who doesn't follow the K-process, or whatever other appropriate process may be involved. No AOS simply because you are here for some other reason and decide to AOS. Tighten that down, add in quality enforcement with deportations and fines for any US resident harboring illegals (by providing cash, housing, employment, or any other assistance), and this problem can be fixed.

We do not have an illegal immigration problem. We have a willpower problem.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[Anna C. 4]

No AOS if you came on another visa than K1/K3??? I don't think that's right. So many come on work visas, fall in love and get married, and they have lived years here, so there was no planning or something like that. And yes, there are cases of people who just visit their sweethearts and end up getting married in the spur of the moment. That would punish them. And that is not necessary since immigration officers do a pretty good job during the interview - if people try to get around the process they most certainly find out. In my book no changes necessary.

I don't like the new fees - what about people who don't apply for AP and EAD anyway??? It would be fair if they could have AOS-diet - old price, no EAD/AP included. And the fees are only ok if there is an improvement in processing speed, which I truly believe will never ever happen.

[akdiver 3]

No AOS if you came on another visa than K1/K3??? I don't think that's right. So many come on work visas

Exactly. Work visas. Not get married visas.

fall in love and get married, and they have lived years here, so there was no planning or something like that.

So they can go home and follow the marriage-based visa like the rest of us. Or better yet, go home, stay home, and invite this person they love to immigrate to THEIR country. Afterall, they only came here to work for a few years anyway, right?

Why should these people gain an advantage over those who cannot get a work visa?

I don't like the new fees - what about people who don't apply for AP and EAD anyway??? It would be fair if they could have AOS-diet - old price, no EAD/AP included.

Same story as for many other government "services" that some of us pay for that we never use, could never use, and will never use. Too bad, so sad, you are subsidizing everyone else.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[tweety 1]

Just a little note on the "improved efficency through fee raises":

USCIS fee raises have hardly ever improved the efficency of the visa process (anyway not for the K visa processes) in the past so what makes you think that it would make anything better in the future?

My personal 2cents on the topic is that the increased revenues obtained from silent, tangible targets (like us immigrants who make it the legal way) will majorly be used on the illegal immigration nightmare e.g. providing the infrastructure to deal with the millions that will probably apply for legal residency and/or US citizenship soon (and i bet they will invent waivers so they don't have to go back to their homecountries and not have to pay the fines and fees), also that guesworker program has to be financed somehow, as is border control and deportation teams etc etc.

If you ask me, we are just the cash cows here....

Anyway, happy to be almost done with USCIS.

[J&D_anon 0]

I go to work every day and have every right to complain about fee increases where it concerns my money.

It's not that I can't afford it. It's that I can have an opinion on issues concerning my money.

Until akdiver offers to pay my fee on my behalf, I will continue to concern myself with this issue.

Cheers!

-John

[akdiver 3]

I go to work every day and have every right to complain about fee increases where it concerns my money.It's not that I can't afford it. It's that I can have an opinion on issues concerning my money.Until akdiver offers to pay my fee on my behalf, I will continue to concern myself with this issue

Hey, I never said you didn't have the right to whine. Whine all you want to. We enjoy hearing it. I was just pointing out the uselessness of such whining, and the logic flaws that the whining is based upon.

If you want to whine about unfairness of government when it comes to your money, whine about more serious issues, such as taking your money and giving it to people who sit on their asses all day, subsidizing their bad attitudes, lack of work ethic, and poor life decisions. I'll back you 100%.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[J&D_anon 0]

Actually,

I haven't complained (or whine as you like to call it) yet about the fee's. I'm hardly concerned. I just find it a bit odd that the fact that others do not want to throw money at the government bothers you so.

Correction, I'd say it's more enjoyable than odd.

Cheers!

-John

Edited May 10, 2007 by John&Diana

[John & Annie 0]

Just a little note on the "improved efficency through fee raises":

USCIS fee raises have hardly ever improved the efficency of the visa process (anyway not for the K visa processes) in the past so what makes you think that it would make anything better in the future?

My personal 2cents on the topic is that the increased revenues obtained from silent, tangible targets (like us immigrants who make it the legal way) will majorly be used on the illegal immigration nightmare e.g. providing the infrastructure to deal with the millions that will probably apply for legal residency and/or US citizenship soon (and i bet they will invent waivers so they don't have to go back to their homecountries and not have to pay the fines and fees), also that guesworker program has to be financed somehow, as is border control and deportation teams etc etc.

If you ask me, we are just the cash cows here....

Anyway, happy to be almost done with USCIS.

You know what, you are right. All the cost increases that I have research prior were based on percentages.

But, this is the first time there has been a cost analysis done to compute the cost of performing the various functions of adjudicating the applications and petitions. Plus the Mandate that fees for refugees should be waived. I think they have applied a very logical process in considering the new fee for each process.

Now, I am not some sort of pie in the sky guy thinking this is going to "fix" everything. But I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. At the same time I say give them enough rope to hang themselves.