INS Readies Plan to Hike More Than 20 Fees for Services in ’98

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, which retreated in September from plans to impose hefty fee increases after an outcry by lawmakers and advocacy groups, will make a new effort in 1998.

The INS is readying a plan that would substantially increase more than 20 fees it charges for such services as processing naturalization applications, issuing border-crossing cards, and renewing green cards for resident aliens. The current fee scale has been in place since 1994.

The proposed hikes will be published in the Federal Register, but the agency will allow several months for public comment before enacting them, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said.

Meissner said the increases will not take effect until the INS can prove that its much-maligned service is improved.

Immigrant-rights activists bristled earlier this year at the proposed increases--the current $95 fee for filing a citizenship application would have risen to $200 or more--at a time some INS field offices are taking more than two years to process applications.