Sec. 302. Immigration service fees
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Section 286(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1356(m) ) is amended to read as follows: Except as provided in paragraph (2), all fees designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security in regulations as immigration adjudication fees shall be deposited as offsetting receipts into the Immigration Examinations Fee Account in the Treasury of the United States, whether such fees are collected directly by the Secretary or through clerks of courts. All fees described in paragraph
(1)that are received by the Secretary of Homeland Security from applicants residing in Guam shall be remitted to the Department of Revenue and Taxation of Guam. All fees described in paragraph
(1)that are received by the Secretary of Homeland Security from applicants residing in the United States Virgin Islands shall be remitted to the Treasury Division of the United States Virgin Islands. All fees remitted pursuant to subparagraph
(A)or
(B)may not be expended for costs associated with— the civil revocation of naturalization; Operation Second Look; Operation Janus; any activities or operations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (including Homeland Security Investigations) or U.S. Customs and Border Protection; or any other activity or operation that is not directly related to immigration adjudications. Subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary of Homeland Security may set fees for providing adjudication and naturalization services at a level that will— ensure recovery of the full costs of providing such services, or a portion of such services, including the costs of naturalization and similar services provided without charge to asylum applicants or other immigrants; and recover the full cost of administering the collection of fees under this paragraph, or a portion of such administrative costs. The Secretary of Homeland Security may not increase any fee under this paragraph above the level of such fee as of January 1, 2019, before the date that is 60 days after the date on which the Secretary submits a report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives that— identifies the direct and indirect costs associated with providing adjudication and naturalization services; distinguishes the costs referred to in clause
(i)from immigration enforcement and national security costs; identifies the costs allocated for premium processing services to business customers, as prescribed under subsection (u); describes the extent to which the fee prescribed in subsection
(u)is set at a level that ensures full recovery of the costs referred to in clause (iii); identifies the amount of funding that is being allocated for the infrastructure improvements in the adjudications and customer-service processes prescribed under subsection (u); and contains information regarding the amount by which such fee will be increased. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a quarterly report to the congressional committees referred to in subparagraph
(B)that identifies each instance in which— the processing time of more than 10 percent of adjudications in any single category of immigration benefits surpasses the agency’s stated processing goal as of January 1, 2019; the processing time of more than 5 percent of applications for legal permanent residence surpasses 150 days; and the processing time of more than 5 percent of applications for naturalization surpasses 150 days. Except as provided in subparagraph (E), if an alien’s income is less than 150 percent of the Federal poverty line, no fee shall be charged or collected for— an application, petition, appeal, motion, or other service described in this subsection; or the biometrics capture or background check associated with the items described in clause (i). If an alien’s income is less than 250 percent of the Federal poverty line, not more than 50 percent of the applicable fee shall be charged or collected for an application, petition, appeal, motion, or service described in this subsection. If an alien is under financial hardship due to extraordinary expenses or other circumstances affecting his or her financial situation to the degree that he or she is unable to pay a fee, no fee shall be charged or collected for— an application, petition, appeal, motion, or other service described in this subsection; or the biometrics capture or background check associated with the items described in clause (i). No fee shall be charged for a fee waiver or reduction request described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C). The fee for employment-based petitions and applications prescribed under subsection
(u)may not be waived. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall consider the receipt of means-tested benefits as a criterion for the purpose of demonstrating eligibility for a fee waiver or reduction under subparagraph (A), (B), or (C). An alien requesting a waiver or reduction of fees under subparagraph (A), (B), or
(C)may submit— a completed form, as prescribed by the Secretary; or an applicant-generated, written request for permission to have their immigration benefit request processed without payment of the required fee. In this paragraph, the term Federal poverty line has the meaning given the term poverty line in section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 ( 42 U.S.C. 9902(2) ), including any revision required under such section applicable to a family of the size involved. . It is the sense of Congress that— the Secretary of Homeland Security should set fees under section 286(m)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1356(m)(3) ) at a level that ensures recovery of only the direct costs associated with the services described in such section; and Congress should appropriate to the Secretary of Homeland Security such funds as may be necessary to pay for— the indirect costs associated with the services described in such section; the adjudication of refugee and asylum processing; the costs of administering the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (commonly known as SAVE ); the adjudication of naturalization applications not covered in full by the fees paid by applicants; the reduction or elimination of fees granted to fee waiver applicants; and grants to public and private nonprofit organizations for the purposes of citizenship and training. Section 286 of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1356 ) is amended— in subsections
(a)and (b), by striking Service each place such term appears and inserting Department of Homeland Security ; in subsections (d), (e), (f), (h), (i), (j), (k), (l), (n), (o), (q), (t), and (u), by striking Attorney General each place such term appears and inserting Secretary of Homeland Security ; in subsection (k), (l), and (t), by striking Immigration and Naturalization Service each place such term appears and inserting Department of Homeland Security ; and in subsection (r)— in paragraph (2), by striking Department of Justice and inserting Department of Homeland Security ; and in paragraphs
(3)and (4), by striking Attorney General each place it appears and inserting Secretary of Homeland Security .
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