The public comment window on a DHS proposal to raise the cost of U.S. citizenship by 75% closes Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. After that, the Department of Homeland Security can move toward a final rule.
The proposed rule, Naturalization Application Fee Adjustments (RIN 1615-AD08), was published in the Federal Register on June 23, 2026. It would raise the paper filing fee for Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, from $760 to $1,330 — an increase of $570. The online filing fee would rise from $710 to $1,280. DHS says the change is intended to align these fees with the relative costs of adjudicating the forms.
The bigger change is who stops getting help
The headline number understates the impact. Alongside the increase, DHS proposes to eliminate the reduced fee option for Form N-400 — currently $380 for lower-income applicants — and to end fee waivers entirely for both Form N-400 and Form N-336, the request for a hearing on a decision in naturalization proceedings.
For an applicant who today qualifies for the reduced fee, the practical jump is not $760 to $1,330. It is $380 to $1,330 — roughly three and a half times the current cost. For an applicant who today qualifies for a full fee waiver, the cost goes from $0 to $1,330.
Current and former armed forces service members would remain exempt from these fees when naturalizing under the statutes covering military members. That exemption is unchanged.
What this means, and what it does not
Nothing has changed yet. This is a notice of proposed rulemaking, not a final rule. The fees stay at their current levels until DHS reviews the comments and publishes a final rule, which has no announced date. Anyone eligible to naturalize now — and especially anyone who currently qualifies for the reduced fee or a fee waiver — may want to weigh filing under the existing fee structure rather than waiting to see where the final rule lands.
For employment-based immigrants on the NIW, EB-1A, or EB-2 track, naturalization sits at the far end of a long road: green card first, then generally five years of permanent residence before filing Form N-400. That distance is exactly why this proposal is easy to overlook now and expensive to discover later. A household planning to naturalize two or three adults after their green cards are approved is looking at a difference of well over a thousand dollars per person against today’s schedule.
Comments may be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0265 on or before Aug. 24, 2026.
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