Are you planning on submitting immigration paperwork anytime before the end of the year? If so, you'd be wise to get moving soon on this paperwork. The USCIS has announced a hike in immigration application fees starting July 30. These new fee increases will affect most adoptive families at two points: when they are submitting their I-600A, and when they are applying for a certificate of citizenship for their children.

Orphan Petitions

The fee for the I-600A Orphan Petition will increase from $545 to $750. The fingerprint fee (or biometric fee, as they now call it) has increased from $70 per applicant to $80. You will need to pay that $80 fee for each person 18 or older living in your household with you. One small good thing about this rate hike, though: the $750 orphan petition fee now includes the fingerprinting fee for one applicant. So you will only have to pay the $80 fee for the second parent and any other adults living in the home.


Keep in mind that many immigration offices will allow you to submit the I600A without a complete homestudy. So if your homestudy is not complete and it is close to the end of July, I would recommend submitting the I600A without the homestudy, thus avoiding that increased fee. Of course they will not issue your I171H without the homestudy, but at least you will have avoided the higher fee.


Certificate of Citizenship

The certificate of citizenship is what many families apply to get so that they will have proof that their children are U.S. citizens. All children who are adopted from Ethiopia, and then go through re-adoption by a U.S. citizen in the U.S. are in fact citizens already. This paperwork just gives proof.

The other option that many people choose to prove citizenship is to get their children a passport. Some people feel that a certificate of citizenship is better proof, because, unlike a passport, it does not expire. However, even an expired passport is still proof of citizenship. So it is pretty much up to families to get the kind of proof that they feel most comfortable with. Personally I have opted to use the passport as proof for each of our foreign-born children.

However, if you have been planning to go the Certificate of Citizenship route, you'll want to submit your application before July 30th. The old fee to get this paperwork done was $215. The fee will jump to $420 beginning on July 30th. Get your paperwork going right away if you want to avoid those fee jumps.


Get the USCIS Forms
I600A Orphan Petition
N-600 Certificate of Citizenship