Original Date Announced

After the passage of the H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), USCIS announced, in a notice, a series of new immigration fees to be collected for various adjudicatory activities and applications made by immigrants. These fees include applications for an Asylum Employment Authorization Document (EAD), a parolee EAD, a Temporary Protected Status EAD, a new Temporary Protected Status fee, a Special Immigrant Juvenile statute (SIJs) Fee, an Annual Asylum Fee (AAF), and provide for fee adjustments pursuant to inflation.

No fee waivers are available for any of the new OBBBA fees, including the new SIJs fee (even though the statute did not explicitly say that no fee waiver is available for that fee).

USCIS announced that it will "begin collecting the filing fees for fiscal year 2025 for any immigration benefit requests postmarked on or after July 22, 2025," and that "requests postmarked on or after August 21, 2025, without the proper filing fee will be rejected."

Trump 2.0 [ID #1870]

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.10.02. USCIS - Annual Asylum Fee

USCIS updated its website to include an "Annual Asylum Fee" landing page with a payment mechanism for the annual asylum fee. The page reads: "Any alien who filed or files a Form I-589 after Oct. 1, 2024, that remains pending with USCIS for 365 days must pay the Annual Asylum Fee (AAF) as of the one-year anniversary of his or her filing date and each year thereafter that the application remains pending on such day of the calendar year. For the first time the AAF is due, aliens who file for asylum do not need to monitor the time their application has been pending and if the AAF applies to them. USCIS will issue personal notices to aliens when their annual asylum fee is due, which will include the amount of the fee, when it must be paid, how the fee must be paid, and the consequences of failing to pay. USCIS will provide guidance for future years' AAF payments in subsequent issuances."

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.10.03 Complaint - ASAP v. USCIS

The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) filed a complaint against USCIS and EOIR challenging the retroactive and unclear implementation of the new annual asylum fee recently mandated by the OBBBA. ASAP seeks emergency preliminary relief (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 OBBBA; 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. ASAP v. USCIS, No. 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**

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.10.07 Motion for Preliminary Injunction - ASAP v. USCIS

ASAP filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking emergency relief to prevent the dismissal or denial of asylum claims based on non-payment of the new annual asylum fee. The motion alleges that asylum applicants face irreparable harm from severe immigration consequences and economic harm.

Some immigration judges (IJs) have started to require asylum applicants to pay the fee despite there being no mechanism to pay. In at least one instance, an IJ rejected an applicant's asylum application and ordered the applicant removed for non-payment.

ASAP seeks a stay under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction that "(1) forbids USCIS and EOIR from imposing the annual asylum fee retroactively; and (2) orders both agencies to reinstate the applications of any ASAP members whose applications have been rejected for nonpayment." In the alternative, ASAP asks the Court to prevent EOIR from taking adverse action against asylum applicants until EOIR "has provided a functioning mechanism to collect the fee and a reasonable opportunity for applicants to pay." ASAP v. USCIS, No. 1:25-cv-03299 (D. Md).

**Link to case here. See litigation note above**

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.10.30 Opinion - ASAP v. USCIS

District Judge Stephanie Gallagher denied ASAP’s motion for a preliminary injunction as to its challenge to the Annual Asylum Fee (AAF) on retroactivity grounds. The court found that the statute does not have retroactive effect, as the triggering event is the application's continued pendency for one year as of a date after enactment. However, the court granted ASAP's motion as to its challenge under the APA. It held that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits that USCIS and EOIR acted arbitrarily and capriciously by adopting divergent and inconsistent policies concerning the AAF. Accordingly, the court issued a temporary stay of both the USCIS Federal Register Notice and the EOIR July 17 Memo. ASAP v. USCIS, No. 1:25-cv-03299 (D. Md).

**Link to case here. See litigation note above**