DHS Proposes Raising Citizenship Application Fees by Up to 83%, Eliminating Income-Based Waivers

The Numbers

The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on June 22, 2026, would raise the paper filing fee for Form N-400, the standard citizenship application, from $760 to $1,330. Online filers would see the fee go from $710 to $1,280. Those represent increases of 75 and 80 percent, respectively.

Applicants who are denied and want to appeal via Form N-336 would face even steeper hikes. The paper filing fee would rise from $830 to $1,475. Online appeals would jump from $780 to $1,425 — an 83 percent increase.

DHS estimates the increases would generate more than $430 million annually, based on roughly 1 million people seeking naturalization each year, according to Epoch Times via ZeroHedge.

What the Agency Says

DHS frames this as a straightforward cost-recovery move. The agency's position, quoted directly in the proposed rule, is that "DHS now believes aliens filing these forms should pay the full cost of adjudication." The agency cites expanded background checks, interviews, vetting, and investigations now required under executive orders signed during President Trump's second term.

A DHS official told Newsweek that naturalization is "the most significant" immigration benefit the government can grant, and that the current fees simply don't cover what processing actually costs. USCIS is largely a fee-funded agency and doesn't draw from general taxpayer appropriations in the same way most federal agencies do.

The agency also argues, per the Ellis report, that low or free fees "may encourage aliens who know or suspect that they are ineligible to apply anyway" — framing the cost increase partly as a deterrent to bad-faith applications.

Fee Waivers: Gone for Almost Everyone

The sharper policy shift isn't just the fee hike. Under current rules, applicants earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty guidelines can file for a reduced fee of $380. Applicants facing genuine financial hardship can seek a full waiver based on income, public benefits, or hardship.

Both options would disappear under the proposal. The only remaining exemption: active and former U.S. military service members, who are exempt from naturalization fees by law.

DHS acknowledged the departure from past practice explicitly. "Although DHS has historically limited the fees for Form N-400 to fulfill previous administrations' priorities of encouraging naturalization," the proposed rule reads, "DHS no longer believes naturalization benefit requests should get lower fees at the potential expense of other immigration benefits."

The Counterargument

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a fellow with the American Immigration Council, noted on X that the proposal specifically targets the cost of converting green card holders — people already lawfully residing in the U.S. and on a legal immigration track — into citizens. The argument isn't about illegal immigration. It's about legal permanent residents who have cleared background checks, paid taxes, and followed the rules for years, now being asked to clear a significantly higher financial bar to complete that process.

Adam Klein, a former DHS official and co-founder of Globali.ai, told Newsweek the concern plainly: "Substantially increasing naturalization fees risks turning citizenship into a benefit that is less accessible to those of modest means. Naturalization has historically been encouraged as a matter of public policy because citizens tend to experience greater economic mobility, civic participation, and long-term integration. Higher fees could undermine those goals."

Past administrations, including Republican ones, used similar arguments to justify keeping fees below full cost.

The counterpoint is that USCIS funding is real and constrained. If naturalization processing is genuinely subsidized by fees paid for other immigration forms, that cross-subsidy has costs too. Whether forcing full cost recovery onto applicants is the right solution, versus congressional appropriations, is a legitimate policy debate.

Where This Sits in the Broader Immigration Picture

Time reported that the Trump administration has also moved to strip citizenship from more than two dozen naturalized Americans this year, a legally contested action that immigration advocates have called unprecedented. The fee hike proposal lands in that context, though the two policies are legally and procedurally distinct.

The proposed rule is NOT final. It is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. DHS is accepting public comments until August 24, 2026. After the comment period closes, the agency must review submissions before issuing any final rule. The increases would NOT take effect automatically.

The changes would affect hundreds of thousands of lawful permanent residents each year, according to Newsweek. The impact would fall hardest on lower-income immigrants — those who currently rely on fee waivers or reduced fees to make naturalization financially possible. If that population is priced out, USCIS could see application volume drop, and the $430 million revenue projection with it.