The USCIS proposes to increase the fee for naturalization to as much as $1,330 at a time when the Donald Trump administration declared war on citizenship fraud and is denaturalizing people who lied to become US citizens. The agency has also proposed to withdraw the waiver programs for naturalization. Green Card holders can apply for naturalization after living in the US for around five years.“Having reexamined whether or not DHS should continue charging lower fees for Form N-400 and Form N-336 and shifting those costs to other benefit requests, DHS now believes aliens filing these forms should pay the full cost of adjudication,” the USCIS proposal said.“As stated previously, US citizenship is the most meaningful immigration benefit the United States can bestow on an alien. However, keeping the fees for Form-N400 and Form N-336 below cost requires DHS to shift the costs not covered by those fees to the fees paid for other forms. DHS no longer believes that the importance of naturalization suffieciently justifies funding naturalization from the fees paid for other immigration benefits, Upon reconsideration, DHS now believes that the great value of citizenship is why naturalization application fees should be set at the amount needed for total cost recovery using ABC,” it said.
