USCIS to Increase Premium Processing Fees Effective March 1, 2026

By Linnea C. Porter on January 13, 2026

On Jan. 9, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will publish a final rule increasing USCIS fees for premium processing.

Premium processing provides expedited processing for certain case types for an additional government filing fee.

In the announcement, USCIS stated that the premium process fee increase reflects the amount of inflation from June 2023 through June 2025. The USCIS Stabilization Act established the authority for DHS to adjust premium processing fees every two years to account for inflation. USCIS stated that the government will use the revenue generated by the fee increase to provide premium processing services, make improvements to adjudication processes, respond to adjudication demands, including processing backlogs, and otherwise fund USCIS adjudication and naturalization services. USCIS last adjusted premium processing in February 2024.

Effective March 1, 2026, requests for premium processing (Form I-907) must include the following updated fees:

Form	Previous Fee	New Fee
Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant status	$1,685	$1,780
Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, all other available Form I-129 classifications: E-1 E-2 E-3 H-1B H-3 L-1A L-1B LZ O-1 O-2 P-1 P-1S P-2 P-2S P-3 P-3S Q-1 TN-1 TN-2	$2,805	$2,965
Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, employment-based classifications: E11 E12 E13 E21 (NIW and non-NIW) E31 E32 EW3	$2,805	$2,965
Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, requesting: F-1 F-2 J-1 J-2 M-1 M-2	$1,965	$2,075
Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, for certain eligible applications (OPT and STEM-OPT Classifications)	$1,685	$1,780

The new fees will take effect for filings postmarked on or after March 1, 2026.