Technical differences and costs curiosities

[ledingham 68]

Hello! I have two general questions about immigration that have been sitting in my "Master list of immigration questions" google document. The further I dive into my own immigration path, the more questions I have and the more curious I get. The questions are probably dumb and I apologize for if they are but I still would like to know. My questions are as follows.

 

1. Why is the K-1 visa a ‘non-immigrant visa’? What are the technical differences between immigrant visas and non immigrant visas pertaining to marriage? Don’t most people immigrate with a K-1 visa? Not critical information, just curious.

2. Why does immigration cost so much? What do the fees go towards? How do they decide on an amount for the different petitions? Why are they considering increasing them? I am curious of the breakdown for the fees for each of the petitions and such. Does anyone know? Again not critical information, just generally curious.

 

I apologize if this post is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it. Thank you anyone in advance for your time!

[payxibka 10,047]

9 minutes ago, dledingham said:

Hello! I have two general questions about immigration that have been sitting in my "Master list of immigration questions" google document. The further I dive into my own immigration path, the more questions I have and the more curious I get. The questions are probably dumb and I apologize for if they are but I still would like to know. My questions are as follows.

 

1. Why is the K-1 visa a ‘non-immigrant visa’? What are the technical differences between immigrant visas and non immigrant visas pertaining to marriage? Don’t most people immigrate with a K-1 visa? Not critical information, just curious.

2. Why does immigration cost so much? What do the fees go towards? How do they decide on an amount for the different petitions? Why are they considering increasing them? I am curious of the breakdown for the fees for each of the petitions and such. Does anyone know? Again not critical information, just generally curious.

 

I apologize if this post is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it. Thank you anyone in advance for your time!

You have to look at the entire journey of visa to green card.   K1 costs more 

[yuna628 9,697]

K1 is classed as a non immigrant but with dual intent visa.

 

K1 gives you the option of remaining and staying in the US, with adjusting status. However, if the couple's needs were different, they could choose not to adjust and return to their home country. So you might ask, why then do we really need the K1 visa, if a person could do a destination wedding on the VWP and then return to their home country afterwards. Well, not everyone can enter using the VWP and can marry and return home, and not every US citizen can go to the foreign fiance's country and marry easily. There are high proof burdens to overcome with visiting visas as well. A K1 gives people in varying situations an option. Most people accept that a K1 will be coming here to remain and make their new life but it's major restriction is that if you intend to remain here you must apply for adjustment of status. Further complexities can spiral out from the immigration process and establishing life while using this visa, especially when it encounters specific state rules and regulations. The US citizen must act quickly and be knowledgeable about processes relating to SSNs, health insurance, IDs/DLs, etc when getting certain agencies to understand what a K1 is and what they are eligible for.

 

A person coming in on a marriage visa for instance will have gone through a K1 + adjustment-like vetting process and are of course already married. They arrive with a green card and can work right away, making this one of the largest advantages over a K1. No adjustment of status is required.

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by yuna628

[JeanneAdil 6,606]

this site will tell you why they intend to increase costs

 

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-proposes-adjust-fees-meet-operational-needs

[ledingham 68]

1 hour ago, payxibka said:

You have to look at the entire journey of visa to green card.   K1 costs more 

I understand that there is differences in costs! My question was more so asking why visas cost what they do. What is taking into consideration when figuring out costs for petitions and visas? Why do different petitions cost different amounts and what are the factors affecting those costs?

[ledingham 68]

1 hour ago, yuna628 said:

K1 is classed as a non immigrant but with dual intent visa.

 

K1 gives you the option of remaining and staying in the US, with adjusting status. However, if the couple's needs were different, they could choose not to adjust and return to their home country. So you might ask, why then do we really need the K1 visa, if a person could do a destination wedding on the VWP and then return to their home country afterwards. Well, not everyone can enter using the VWP and can marry and return home, and not every US citizen can go to the foreign fiance's country and marry easily. There are high proof burdens to overcome with visiting visas as well. A K1 gives people in varying situations an option. Most people accept that a K1 will be coming here to remain and make their new life but it's major restriction is that if you intend to remain here you must apply for adjustment of status. Further complexities can spiral out from the immigration process and establishing life while using this visa, especially when it encounters specific state rules and regulations. The US citizen must act quickly and be knowledgeable about processes relating to SSNs, health insurance, IDs/DLs, etc when getting certain agencies to understand what a K1 is and what they are eligible for.

 

A person coming in on a marriage visa for instance will have gone through a K1 + adjustment-like vetting process and are of course already married. They arrive with a green card and can work right away, making this one of the largest advantages over a K1. No adjustment of status is required.

 

 

Thank you very much for your well thought out and very detailed response! This definitely answers my first question and it makes a lot of sense. If you don't mind me asking, what is the VWP?

[payxibka 10,047]

2 minutes ago, dledingham said:

I understand that there is differences in costs! My question was more so asking why visas cost what they do. What is taking into consideration when figuring out costs for petitions and visas? Why do different petitions cost different amounts and what are the factors affecting those costs?

Why does a Tesla Model X $80k? 

 

The uscis is supposed to cover its costs of production and overhead with the fees they generate 

[ledingham 68]

1 minute ago, payxibka said:

The uscis is supposed to cover its costs of production and overhead with the fees they generate 

Understandable. Do you happen to know why different petitions and different visas cost different amounts? Or the breakdown of the fees? Or do they just decide a random amount of money you have to pay for petitions/visas and go with it? I can't imagine they just pick a random number out of their brain and go "yeah sure that works". There has to be some sort of breakdown or thought process behind it?

 

I understand that people on here IS USCIS or works for them so I'm sure many people that don't know. That is okay as well. Not all questions can be answered here!

[payxibka 10,047]

9 minutes ago, dledingham said:

Understandable. Do you happen to know why different petitions and different visas cost different amounts? Or the breakdown of the fees? Or do they just decide a random amount of money you have to pay for petitions/visas and go with it? I can't imagine they just pick a random number out of their brain and go "yeah sure that works". There has to be some sort of breakdown or thought process behind it?

 

I understand that people on here IS USCIS or works for them so I'm sure many people that don't know. That is okay as well. Not all questions can be answered here!

The government has "bean counters" just like every other organization.   I am sure they have flow charted every step of a petition or applications life from beginning to end and costed it appropriately 

[JeanneAdil 6,606]

41 minutes ago, dledingham said:

I understand that there is differences in costs! My question was more so asking why visas cost what they do. What is taking into consideration when figuring out costs for petitions and visas? Why do different petitions cost different amounts and what are the factors affecting those costs?

this is the DHS budget

you will see we pay out of our fees for a lot of service including investigations and deporations

illegals do not pay to be removed 

DHS and ICE are not funded by a federal government budget / we pay

 

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ICE FY18 Budget.pdf

 

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, principally responsible for immigration enforcement, with additional responsibilities in countering transnational crime.

 

you can find out a lot of information online by just googling a question/ any quesiton

i always refer to the actual government sites not news media or other sources unless it is from a law college like Cornell university or Vanderbuilt, etc

Edited November 27, 2019 by JeanneAdil

[ledingham 68]

5 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

this is the DHS budget

you will see we pay out of our fees for a lot of service including investigations and deporations

illegals do not pay to be removed 

DHS and ICE are not funded by a federal government budget / we pay

 

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ICE FY18 Budget.pdf

 

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, principally responsible for immigration enforcement, with additional responsibilities in countering transnational crime.

 

you can find out a lot of information online by just googling a question/ any quesiton

i always refer to the actual government sites not news media or other sources unless it is from a law college like Cornell university or Vanderbuilt, etc

Thank you for the link and this material. I try to google things as much as I can but nothing beats talking to someone directly! I will read over this as well as I can!

[ledingham 68]

24 minutes ago, payxibka said:

The government has "bean counters" just like every other organization.   I am sure they have flow charted every step of a petition or applications life from beginning to end and costed it appropriately 

I imagine you are correct. I guess only someone who works with USCIS closely or is an immigration lawyer maybe would know what that flowchart looks like and the information it contains.

[JeanneAdil 6,606]

42 minutes ago, dledingham said:

Understandable. Do you happen to know why different petitions and different visas cost different amounts? Or the breakdown of the fees? Or do they just decide a random amount of money you have to pay for petitions/visas and go with it? I can't imagine they just pick a random number out of their brain and go "yeah sure that works". There has to be some sort of breakdown or thought process behind it?

 

I understand that people on here IS USCIS or works for them so I'm sure many people that don't know. That is okay as well. Not all questions can be answered here!

We don't even want to think what the fees would be like if it was actually broken down separately as the fees for high fraud countries would be more and they would find a way to charge more for those who file waivers for divorces to adjust their AOS and ROC.  Why they are thinking to raise the AOS from $1225 to over $2000 and the fee for naturalizing to so much is beyond me / i can only hope it is to hire additonal help.  but you can go online and express your opinions and displeasure about the new increases till the December 16th 

[JeanneAdil 6,606]

this is the site to exxpress concerns about fee increases 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/11/14/2019-24366/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-fee-schedule-and-changes-to-certain-other-immigration

 

green box on the site is for comments

[ledingham 68]

5 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

We don't even want to think what the fees would be like if it was actually broken down separately as the fees for high fraud countries would be more and they would find a way to charge more for those who file waivers for divorces to adjust their AOS and ROC.  Why they are thinking to raise the AOS from $1225 to over $2000 and the fee for naturalizing to so much is beyond me / i can only hope it is to hire additonal help.  but you can go online and express your opinions and displeasure about the new increases till the December 16th 

Have they fully decided to change the fees yet or is it still in the talks? Where would we go to express our opinions on this (You just answered this). We just filed ourI-129F for the K-1 visa early this month with the regular price but if they're already certain that they are increasing the fees then we've only dodged one bullet 😞

Edited November 27, 2019 by dledingham