On June 23, the Department of Homeland Security published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would rewrite what it costs to become a U.S. citizen. For the roughly one million green card holders who file for naturalization in an average year, that cost has long been treated as an exception: federal policy has deliberately kept the fee below what USCIS says it actually spends processing each case, specifically to keep the path to citizenship open to working-class applicants. This proposal abandons that approach, treating naturalization as a service that should pay for itself rather than one worth subsidizing.
The public has until August 24 to submit formal comments through the government's official rulemaking portal before DHS can move toward finalizing the rule. As of August 19, the docket had already drawn more than 1,100 public comments.
