Avoid rejection: re-price EAD, parole, asylum, TPS fees by Oct. 16

The postmark date is the fee trigger

The deadline is the postmark date. The rule is simple: a request that leaves the office on or after the FY2027 start date needs the FY2027 fee. The workaround is to re-price before release, not after a rejection notice arrives.

The risk is operational, not legal. A case can be drafted with the old fee, sit in a queue, and then hit the fee date because of a courier delay. The fee that was correct at drafting may be wrong at release. The control is a second fee check at the moment of release, not a one-time check at intake. The office that catches it early avoids a rejection. The office that misses it spends time re-filing.

USCIS, the federal immigration agency, announced the FY2027 immigration fee increase for H.R. 1, the immigration fee law. The FY2027 schedule begins on or after the start date, and requests that carry a postmark on or after that date are rejected if the fee is missing. The move is tied to CPI-U, the consumer price index, which rose about 3.36% over the period USCIS used. That period ran from July 2025 through July 2026.

The H.R. 1 fee adjustment rounds most adjusted fees down to the next lower $10 increment, while the annual pending asylum application fee rounds to the nearest dollar. The earlier FY2026 adjustment became effective January 1, 2026, after the July 2024 to July 2025 CPI-U change.

Run the checklist before release

The list below is the control. It turns the fee switch into a filing-window problem: the postmark date decides the fee, the form decides the amount, and the queue decides the risk.

• Date the fee to the postmark, not the drafting date.
• For requests postmarked on or after Oct. 16, 2026, use the FY2027 fee amounts; requests without the required fee will be rejected.
• For the unchanged asylum renewal EAD fee, keep the prior amount because H.R. 1 does not allow an inflation adjustment for that fee.
• Check the asylum renewal EAD separately; it stays unchanged under H.R. 1.
• If the mailing could postmark before or after the date, flag it for a fee recheck.
• Verify the fee against the form version and the postmark date before release.
• Keep a note of the CPI-U basis if a client asks why the fee moved.

The first item stops the common error of pricing a case when it is drafted. The second and third items keep the affected fees and the unchanged fees separate. The asylum renewal EAD fee is the fee outside the adjustment because H.R. 1 does not allow an inflation adjustment for that fee. The fifth and sixth items handle the straddle, where a case can move from one fee schedule to the other. The seventh item gives you a clean explanation when someone asks why the number changed.

The unchanged fees are the easy miss because they look like the affected fees. The form may be familiar, the client may be familiar, and the office may be familiar. The difference is the fee line. If the fee is not excluded, the postmark date controls the new amount. The office that prices by habit will mix them up before the mailroom sees the case.

Straddling cases need a second check

A straddle is a case that can postmark on either side of the fee date. It is the one that needs a second pair of eyes at release. If the envelope leaves the office before the date, the FY2026 fee may still be correct, and if it leaves on or after the date, the FY2027 fee is required.

When the postmark is not visible, treat the filing as at risk and recheck the fee before release. If the carrier does not provide a postmark, use the pickup date as the risk date and confirm the fee against the latest schedule. Do not let a queue decide the fee. Mark the case, recheck the postmark date, and release only when the fee matches the date. Keep the flag until the fee matches the date. Record the check in the case file.