To pay USCIS fees for the petition or application you are submitting, you will need to mail a check or money order together with your petition or application. USCIS will not accept and process your petition or application unless the appropriate fee is included. Recently, USCIS has now started to accept credit cards and debit cards for payment of their fees. Therefore, there are 2 ways to pay your USCIS filing fees and biometrics fees:

1. If you decide that you want to pay your USCIS fees with a check or money order, you will need to make the check or money order payable to the “Department of Homeland Security”. Please make sure to not abbreviate. If a biometrics fee is necessary for the petition or application you are submitting, you can include the biometrics fee in the total amount of the check. For example, the fee for the Form N-400 (Naturalization Application) is $640.00 and you are required to pay an additional $85.00 toward your biometrics fee. Therefore, you can simply write a check for $725.00 made payable to the Department of Homeland Security.

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2. If you decide that you want to pay your USCIS fees with a credit card or debit card, you will need to prepare and file a Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions. Do not forget to sign the Form G-1450 and mail it to USCIS together with your petition or application. USCIS accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Once USCIS accepts your petition or application and charges your credit card or debit card for their fees, they will destroy your Form G-1450 to protect your sensitive information. You will see a charge from USCIS on your billing statement.

By Ekaterina Huff, Esq.