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USCIS Immigrant Fee: what it is

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USCIS Immigrant Fee: definition

Key answer

The USCIS Immigrant Fee is the fee for producing the green card, paid after the immigrant visa is issued at the consulate, before or right after entering the US. It is separate from the NVC visa-processing fees. The physical card is mailed after entry.

On the EB-1 / EB-2 NIW consular path fees are paid twice to different places: in CEAC at the NVC stage - for immigrant-visa processing (and the affidavit of support, if required), and the USCIS Immigrant Fee - after the visa is approved. Do not confuse it with the MRV consular fee for nonimmigrant visas like the O-1.

Fee amounts are revised periodically - before paying, check the State Department Fees for Visa Services page and the USCIS fee calculator, not forum figures.

USCIS Immigrant Fee: the official definition

“The USCIS Immigrant Fee recovers USCIS costs related to immigrant visas issued by the U.S. Department of State at U.S. embassies and consulates outside the United States. The fee covers the cost of USCIS processing, filing, and maintaining immigrant visa packets, plus the cost of producing Green Cards.”

USCIS Glossary (uscis.gov), read 2026-10-11. Quoted verbatim.

USCIS Immigrant Fee: the official source

USCIS Immigrant Fee: what to do - tools

USCIS Immigrant Fee: read next

USCIS Immigrant Fee: documents and templates from the library

USCIS Immigrant Fee: from community discussions

  • «If it ties in somehow with your contribution to the industry, that your personal methods and developments were used in lectures, etc., then you can add it as one of the pieces of evidence for the contribution-to-industry criterion. Or else only in final merits.»

    community member · from public community chats

  • «And if there are no old articles, how suspicious will it be that I started publishing. Even if I keep a 2-month interval? Can the release of articles be tied to publishing, for example, of a unique method or a "contribution" to the community? For example, I published some unique method and it started getting cited in the media? For an O1 visa is that also critical or does it relate more to EB1?»

    community member · from public community chats

  • «If we're talking about contribution that can be confirmed by a significant number of citations or a developed method or a patent. What specifically counts as a "contribution" to the endeavor isn't in the requirements. But right now, because there are a huge number of applications and the quota is limited, if a petitioner doesn't have this kind of clear contribution but is just a great specialist, then the chance the approval goes to someone who has all this is much higher. Keep in mind that right now every applicant has to compete with a large number of top-class professionals from all over the world, and just being a very good specialist in your field isn't enough.»

    Yernar · from public community chats

Personal opinions of community members from public discussions, not legal advice.

USCIS Immigrant Fee: related terms

All glossary terms

A reference definition, not legal advice. Requirements and procedures depend on your case - verify on uscis.gov.

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