The fee for a green card application filed in immigration court went up $50 on October 1. The Justice Department’s immigration-court system now charges $1,590 for Form I-485, the application to become a permanent resident, up from $1,540.

The new immigration-court amount

The change comes from a notice that the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department agency that runs the immigration courts, published in the Federal Register on September 29. The notice says the fees “are effective October 1, 2026.” For Form I-485, the table shows $1,540 plus an increase of $50, for a new fee of $1,590.

The same table raises other fees. The waiver application Form I-601 goes from $1,070 to $1,100 when it is filed with the immigration court, and the annual fee for a pending asylum application goes from $102 to $105. An index of the notice posted by the American Immigration Lawyers Association adds that it also covers the TPS application, Form I-821, and says the new fees apply to certain Department of Homeland Security forms filed with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which covers the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Whose filing the new fee covers

The $1,590 figure applies when the green card application is filed in immigration court, not when it goes to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The USCIS page for Form I-485 gives no dollar amount for its own filings and points applicants to the agency’s fee calculator, so the court number cannot be assumed to be the USCIS one.

That leaves people with an application before an immigration judge, and the lawyers or accredited representatives who help them, to confirm which office will receive the form before sending a check. A filing in the wrong place can mean paying the wrong amount, and the fee notice itself is the document that sets the court figure.

The $1,590 fee is the fiscal 2027 figure, set by a 3.4 percent consumer price index adjustment, and the USCIS versions of H.R. 1 fees move again on October 16.

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Where the $50 jump comes from

The fees trace to H.R. 1, the 2025 law also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which set new immigration charges. The immigration-court notice applies a 3.4 percent change in the consumer price index, the CPI-U, to calculate the fiscal 2027 amounts. Three-point-four percent of $1,540 is about $52, and the table lists the increase as $50.

The calculation is a plain inflation adjustment on top of an amount already set under the law.

A second set of changes on October 16

Immigration fees at USCIS follow a different calendar. A separate notice published October 1 says the fees in it are effective on or after October 16, 2026. USCIS used a change in the CPI-U of about 3.36 percent from July 2025 to July 2026.

Its table lists these changes:

• The immigration parole fee, Form I-131, goes from $1,020 to $1,050.
• The initial work permit for asylum applicants, parolees and people with Temporary Protected Status goes from $560 to $570.
• The TPS application fee, Form I-821, goes from $510 to $520.
• The annual fee for a pending asylum application goes from $102 to $105.

The initial asylum application fee stays at $100, and renewal work permits stay at $275 for asylum applicants and $280 for parolees and TPS holders. The USCIS notice does not list Form I-485.

What a wrong payment costs

The USCIS notice is blunt about errors: any immigration benefit request postmarked on or after October 16, 2026 without the proper filing fee will be rejected. Fees paid to USCIS are also final. Its Form I-485 page says filing and biometric service fees are final and non-refundable, whatever the agency decides on the application.

Confirming the fee before filing

The free source for the court number is the Federal Register notice itself, linked above, which lists the old fee, the increase and the new fee for each form. The notice is the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Directive Order No. 10-2026, published at 91 FR 61447. For a filing at USCIS, the agency’s fee calculator is the place to get the number, since its form page leaves the amount blank.

Before mailing anything, a filer should write down which office will get the form, the form number, the date of mailing and the amount of the payment. USCIS says it accepts a money order, personal check or cashier’s check at its service centers, and credit cards only at a USCIS lockbox with Form G-1450. Those payment rules are for USCIS filings, so the immigration-court clerk or the notice is the place to confirm how the court takes payment.

The dates to keep straight are two: October 1, when the immigration-court fees rose, and October 16, when the USCIS fees listed in the second notice take effect.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.