Original Date Announced

EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen issued Policy Memorandum ("PM") 25-35, "Statutory Fees Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act." to implement the July 4, 2025 reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), which made several changes to immigration-related fees. This PM updated PM 21‑10 to reflect new OBBA fee schedules, including an $100 filing fee for asylum application, an $100 annual fee to maintain pending asylum case, and other fees for appeals and motions before EOIR. It also prohibited certain fees from being waived or reduced including the initial asylum application fee, the annual asylum fee, and the TPS fee. Trump 2.0 [ID #1943].

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

EOIR - PM 25-36

EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen issued Policy Memorandum ("PM") 25-36, "Statutory Fees Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act." The PM supersedes and replaces the recently issued PM 25-35, "Statutory Fees Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act," to clarify certain points for adjudicators about changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ("OBBBA"). PM 25-36 explains how EOIR is implementing immediately new immigration fees and making fee waiver changes pursuant to the OBBBA. The memo points out that any EOIR's regulations on fees are superseded by the legislation, and rulemaking will follow.

The memo re-emphasizes the policy that EOIR has a statutory authority to "set fees to ensure full cost recovery." First, there are now new fees implemented or increased by the OBBBA relating to EOIR proceedings and BIA appeals are in addition to other fees authorized by law. This includes the new fee requirement for initial asylum applications and annual fees for each year the application is pending. Second, the OBBBA does not affect the validity of EOIR’s fee waiver request form, and that the guidance contained in PM 21-10 regarding practices for the adjudication of fee waiver requests remains valid. However, certain fees cannot be waived or reduced -- specifically, the initial asylum application fee, the annual asylum fee, and the Temporary Protected Status fee. Third, fees can be increased further, and EOIR will continue to review its fees on at least a biennial basis, if not more frequently, to determine whether any further fee adjustments are warranted. This will include any annual inflation adjustment.

Finally, the PM lists the new fees, effective immediately, that EOIR will charge for applications for relief, protection from removal, appeals, and motions.

In summary, on July 9, 2025, EOIR issued PM 25-35 as guidance that interpreted the OBBA listed fee amounts as being the complete EOIR-related fees, but on July 17, 2025, EOIR issued the subsequent PM 25-36, which adds the OBBA fees to previously existing fee amounts, therefore making them more expensive. The EOIR webpage titled “Types of Appeals, Motions, and Required Fees” and the “EOIR Forms” webpage now also calculate the fees based on the OBBA fee added to existing fees, rather than just the OBBA fee.

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.10.03 Complaint - ASAP v. USCIS

On October 3, 2025, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) filed a complaint against USCIS and EOIR in D.Md. The complaint challenges the retroactive and unclear implementation of the new annual asylum fee recently mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), alleging that the retroactive application is not clearly authorized by the OBBB, that the agencies' guidance is conflicting, and that the agencies failed to provide a mechanism for applicants to pay the required fees. The complaint further alleges that some immigration judges (IJs) are already requiring applicants to have paid the annual fees specified in the guidance.

ASAP seeks relief, inter alia, 1) barring USCIS and EOIR from requiring asylum seekers who filed their applications on or before July 4, 2025 to pay the annual asylum fee while this litigation is pending, 2) setting aside USCIS’s and EOIR’s unlawful interpretations of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), and 3) ordering EOIR to provide clear instructions pursuant to which applicants can pay the annual asylum fee and refrain from penalizing applicants for nonpayment until it gives them notice and a reasonable opportunity to pay.

On October 7, ASAP filed a motion for a preliminary injunction requesting the court enjoin the agencies from retroactively applying the fee and requiring them to reinstate applications rejected on the basis that applicants had not paid the fees and stay under the Administrative Procedure Act USCIS and EOIR's actions regarding the annual asylum fee. ASAP v. USCIS, 1:25-cv-03299 (D. Md).

**Link to case here. Our litigation entries generally report only the initial complaint and any major substantive filings or decisions. For additional information, CourtListener provides access to PACER and all available pleadings. Other sites that track litigation in more detail or organize cases by topic include Civil Rights Clearinghouse, Justice Action Center, National Immigration Litigation Alliance, and Just Security**