Combined Filing Fees for H-1B and H-1B1 Petitions and Related Forms will No Longer be Accepted by USCIS

Effective April 1, 2022, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) will no longer accept “single combined joint fees when Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, or Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition” which are filed together with an H-1B or H-1B1 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker.

USCIS notes that each form listed above must be filed with its own separate payment fee, and petitions or applications filed with combined fees will be rejected by the Service. The only form that may be filed with joint fees alongside the Form I-129 requesting H-1B classification is Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing.

The change comes about as USCIS transitions to electronic processing of immigration benefit requests. As the Service continues to move towards its goal to “streamline filing and reduce, minimize and control burdens to submit requests,” they will be “using multiple systems to receipt and process various types of immigration benefit requests.” Due to the fact that H-1B and H-1B1 petitions and related applications are not all processed in the same system, USCIS will be requiring a separate payment instrument for each of the forms listed above.