Status as of September 9, 2026. The Annual Asylum Fee (AAF) for a pending asylum application is $102 for fiscal year 2026. The statute allows no waiver and no reduction. The fee is paid to whichever agency currently has the case: USCIS, or the immigration courts through their payment portal. Since August 5, 2026, a federal court has stayed nationwide the consequences USCIS adopted for nonpayment; the fee itself remains in force and payments are still being accepted. In immigration court the picture is the opposite: under a Board of Immigration Appeals decision issued July 24, 2026, missing a payment deadline set by an immigration judge means the asylum claim is pretermitted or deemed abandoned.
Since July 2025, applying for asylum in the United States has no longer been free, and the explanations circulating about the new fees are contradictory enough that people with identical cases end up paying differently. Some wait for a notice that never arrives. Some send money to the wrong agency. Some are convinced that after the August court order nobody has to pay at all. We went through the statute, the agency regulations, the EOIR policy memorandum and the recent court decisions, and put the answers in one place.
The short version
The annual fee is $102 for each pending asylum application. A spouse and children included on one application as derivatives owe no separate fee; family members with their own separate applications each owe one. The fee cannot be waived or reduced.
The deadline is set by paper, not by the calendar: at USCIS by an individual notice with 30 days to pay, in court by a written order from the immigration judge.
Penalties for nonpayment are currently stayed only at USCIS. In immigration court they apply.
Quick answers
How much? The annual fee is currently $102 per application and comes due again each year the application stays pending. Separately, filing a new asylum application costs a one-time $100.
Who pays? Anyone whose asylum application has been pending a year or longer; the starting point is calculated differently for older and newer cases. The fee follows the application: one application, one payment.
Where do you pay? Case at USCIS — the USCIS payment page. Case in immigration court or at the BIA — the EOIR Payment Portal only.
When? By the date in the USCIS notice or the immigration judge's order; there is no single nationwide date. The standard USCIS window is 30 days from the notice, but while the court stay is in effect the agency is also accepting overdue payments.
Can you skip it if you cannot afford it? No. The statute expressly bars any waiver or reduction of this fee.
What happens if you do not pay? In court, the asylum claim is taken off the table without a decision on the merits. At USCIS the penalties are stayed for now, but the debt remains.
Contents
What the annual asylum fee is and where it came from
The annual asylum fee is a payment owed for each calendar year that an asylum application remains pending. It was created by the budget reconciliation act signed on July 4, 2025 (Public Law 119-21) and codified at 8 U.S.C. 1808. Before that, applying for asylum in the United States carried no fee at all.
The same law created a one-time fee for filing an asylum application (8 U.S.C. 1802) and raised the fees for filings in the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (8 U.S.C. 1812). The initial fee and the annual fee are two different payments; paying one does not satisfy the other.
Two features of the mechanics explain most of the confusion about the numbers. First, the new fees are charged in addition to the fees that already existed, so the figure a person actually pays is the sum of two components. Second, the amounts are adjusted for inflation each fiscal year using the July CPI-U, with the annual asylum fee rounded down to the nearest dollar and the other fees rounded down to the nearest ten. That is why the annual fee rose from $100 to $102 while the initial filing fee stayed at $100.
Who has to pay and when the fee comes due
The fee is owed by anyone whose asylum application has been pending for a year or longer. It attaches to the application rather than to the person: a spouse and children listed on one application as derivatives owe no separate fee, while separately filed applications are each charged. Because the transitional rules differ, the starting point depends on the history of the individual case.
Older cases at USCIS. The first annual fee applies to applications that remained pending for the entire period from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025.
Older cases in court. EOIR applies the fee to applications that had been pending one year or more on or after October 1, 2025.
Newer cases. The first fee comes due on the anniversary of filing, that is, after 365 days pending.
Later cycles. If the application remains pending another 365 days after the first fee came due, another fee arises, and so on each year.
"Annual" does not mean that every applicant sends a payment on September 30. The fee comes due case by case, and the actual deadline is communicated by an individual USCIS notice or by a written order from an immigration judge or the Board.
An application filed only for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture, without an asylum claim, does not carry the fee. Separately, members of the Ms. L. settlement class and their qualifying additional family members have been exempt from the fees created by the 2025 law since February 5, 2026.
How to tell whether your case is at USCIS or in court
An application sits with only one agency at a time, though it can move between them. Someone who filed on their own and is not in removal proceedings has an affirmative case at USCIS. Someone in removal proceedings has a case before an immigration judge, and after a decision, potentially before the Board. The two systems use different payment platforms, different notices and different deadlines, and a payment made into the wrong system does not count.
Where the case is | Where to pay | What sets the deadline |
|---|---|---|
Affirmative case at USCIS | USCIS payment page | 30 days from the date of the individual notice |
Case in immigration court | EOIR Payment Portal | The immigration judge's written order |
Appeal at the Board | EOIR Payment Portal | A written order from the Board |
Case moved from USCIS to court | EOIR Payment Portal | The transfer itself creates no new fee; a payment already made counts toward the next one |
If your case is at USCIS
On paper the process is straightforward: USCIS sends an individual notice stating the amount, the method of payment, the deadline and the consequences of nonpayment, and the applicant has 30 days from the date of the notice to pay. Payment is made online through the annual asylum fee page in a USCIS account, using the A-Number and the receipt number from the notice. While the court stay is in effect, the agency is also accepting payments past the stated deadline.
Practice in 2026 diverged from that description. The record in the ASAP litigation in the federal district court in Maryland documents that notices were going out to outdated addresses even after applicants had filed the proper change-of-address forms, and that some people never received a notice at all. Many learned the fee was due only when the payment page told them the payment period had expired. The court called the problem concerning but treated it as a failure of implementation rather than a defect in the rule itself.
The practical takeaway: if the application has been pending at USCIS for more than a year, check the fee status yourself on the official payment page instead of waiting for a letter, and keep your address current with the agency. A change of address filed with the postal service updates neither USCIS nor the court.
If your case is in immigration court or at the Board
In the court system the reference point is not an agency notice but a written order. Under EOIR Policy Memorandum 26-01, issued January 2, 2026, the agency does not require payment and does not apply consequences until an immigration judge has entered an order setting a specific deadline and that deadline has passed. The Board can enter the same kind of order in a case on appeal.
The same memorandum waived the fiscal year 2025 fee for applications that had been pending a year or more between July 5 and September 30, 2025, but had become administratively final by September 30, 2025.
One detail documented in the Maryland court's February 2, 2026 decision: these deadlines are not uniform. EOIR deliberately declined to set a minimum notice period, leaving the timing to each judge, and in some cases judges gave applicants two days from the date of the order. That is why orders and the electronic record are worth checking regularly rather than every few months.
Paying early — after the fee comes due but before an order issues — is not prohibited, and the portal accepts such payments. But the fact that a payment goes through does not mean an order has been entered or that any particular deadline applies.
What happens if you do not pay on time
The consequences currently differ sharply between the two systems, and this is the most volatile part of the subject.
Immigration court. On July 24, 2026 the Board issued a precedent decision, Matter of L-F-R-, 29 I&N Dec. 787 (BIA 2026): if an applicant fails to pay the annual asylum fee within the deadline set by the judge, the asylum application should be pretermitted or deemed abandoned. This is not a denial after a hearing — the court simply never reaches the question of whether the person qualifies for protection. The same rule governs proceedings before the Board itself.
USCIS. An interim final rule published April 29, 2026 and effective May 29, 2026 provided that if the fee goes unpaid for 30 days after the notice, USCIS rejects the pending asylum application, denies any employment authorization application filed on its basis, terminates work authorization already granted and, absent another lawful status, initiates removal proceedings. On July 21, 2026 the federal district court in Massachusetts, in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS (No. 1:26-cv-13038), temporarily stayed the implementation of those consequences, and on August 5, 2026 confirmed the stay. On August 13, 2026 payment windows were reopened for a portion of applicants with outstanding payments.
While the stay is in effect, USCIS cannot apply the consequences for nonpayment set out in the April rule. That is not an abolition of the fee and not a freestanding shield against removal on other grounds: the obligation to pay remains, the debt is not cancelled, and the stay lasts only until the case is decided on the merits.
What happens to withholding and protection under the Convention Against Torture
A single Form I-589 covers three forms of relief at once: asylum, statutory withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture. In Matter of L-F-R- the Board held expressly that the annual asylum fee reaches only the asylum claim, and that the consequences of nonpayment do not extend to the other two claims raised on the same form.
In practice that means nonpayment can cost the asylum claim — along with everything attached to it, including the path to permanent residence and family reunification — but the court must still separately consider withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture where those claims are raised. This is not an argument for not paying: those forms of relief carry substantially narrower rights and do not lead to a green card.
Can the fee be waived if you cannot afford it
Not the annual asylum fee. The bar on waiver and reduction appears in the statute itself and is repeated in the EOIR regulation at 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(4)(iii) and in the guidance accompanying Form I-912. The same applies to the initial asylum filing fee. The law provides no deferral procedure either; the deadline is whatever the notice or the order says.
Other fees can still be waived on inability-to-pay grounds.
At USCIS, the request is made on Form I-912 and reaches only the agency's own regulatory fee. If the form also carries a fee created by the 2025 law, that fee must be submitted as a separate payment together with the waiver request. The grounds are receipt of a means-tested benefit, income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, or financial hardship.
In immigration court, the judge has discretion to waive the fee for a motion or an application for relief on a showing of inability to pay, supported by an affidavit or unsworn declaration. For an appeal to the Board the request is made on Form EOIR-26A. If the request is denied, the filer gets 15 days to refile with the fee, and the filing deadline is tolled during that period.
A rule worth keeping in mind: if a fee cannot be waived at DHS, the court cannot waive it either.
How to pay and what to do with the receipt
Immigration court and the Board. Since June 11, 2026 the only permitted method is the EOIR Payment Portal. Checks and money orders have not been accepted since February 23, 2026. The portal runs around the clock and takes debit and credit cards, ACH transfers from a checking or savings account, PayPal and Amazon Pay, with the transaction processed through the federal Pay.gov system. For the annual fee, select the filing type in the dropdown that refers to Form I-589 and the annual asylum fee, then enter the A-Number.
Once payment goes through, the portal issues a digital receipt and a Payment Tracking ID. EOIR warns explicitly that no copy of the receipt is emailed. Download or print the receipt immediately and store the Tracking ID separately — without it the receipt cannot be retrieved later. The receipt is submitted with the filing as proof of payment. Fees are generally non-refundable: not if the filing is rejected, not if the case is denied, not based on how long adjudication takes. Partial payments are not accepted. One known technical problem is bank-side debit blocks that defeat ACH transactions.
USCIS. The annual fee is paid on the dedicated page in a USCIS account, using the A-Number and the receipt number from the notice. A case at USCIS cannot be paid through the court portal, and the reverse is equally true.
Check the payment history before making a second payment. The court portal displays prior payments under an A-Number, and the agency itself recommends verifying so that the same fee is not paid twice.
What to do if you already missed the deadline
The answer depends on where the case sits.
Case at USCIS. A missed deadline does not currently mean an automatic loss of the case: enforcement is stayed, and in August 2026 payment windows were reopened for a portion of applicants with outstanding balances. The debt itself remains. The sensible sequence is to check the payment page, pay if the payment is available, and keep the confirmation together with the notice. If the page still reports that the payment period has expired, save a dated screenshot: it documents the attempt to pay.
Case in court. The first thing to establish is whether a written order issued and what deadline it set. Until an order exists, the agency should not be applying consequences. If an order issued and the deadline passed, the situation is dangerous under Matter of L-F-R-. What can be done about it depends on the stage and procedural history of the particular case: questions of reopening, appeal and further judicial review may arise, each with its own deadlines and fees. This is a situation for contacting a licensed immigration attorney immediately.
What other immigration court and Board filings cost
The amounts below are totals — they already combine the pre-existing agency fee and the fee added by the 2025 law. The right-hand column shows the amounts that take effect on October 1, 2026.
Filing | Now | From October 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Appeal from an immigration judge's decision (EOIR-26) | $1,030 | $1,060 |
Appeal from a DHS officer's decision (EOIR-29) | $1,030 | $1,060 |
Motion to reopen or reconsider an immigration judge's decision | $1,065 | $1,095 |
Motion to reopen or reconsider a Board decision | $1,030 | $1,060 |
Motion based exclusively on relief that carries no fee | $920 | $950 |
Cancellation of removal for a permanent resident (EOIR-42A) | $710 | $730 |
Cancellation of removal for a nonpermanent resident (EOIR-42B) | $1,640 | $1,690 |
Suspension of deportation (EOIR-40) | $710 | $730 |
Practitioner disciplinary appeal (EOIR-45) | $2,030 | $2,070 |
A separate group covers DHS forms filed in court. In fiscal year 2026 those are $2,980 for adjustment of status (I-485), $2,120 for a waiver of grounds of inadmissibility (I-601), $510 for Temporary Protected Status (I-821), $100 for the initial asylum application and $102 for the annual asylum fee.
Not every filing carries a fee. None is required for a custody bond appeal; for a motion filed while proceedings are already pending; for a motion seeking only a stay of removal; for a motion filed by DHS; for a motion agreed upon by all parties and filed jointly; or for a motion to reopen an in absentia removal order filed on lack-of-notice grounds. A motion to reopen an in absentia order on exceptional-circumstances grounds does carry a fee.
One more change from June 2026: the rule that allowed an applicant filing several applications to pay only the highest fee has been removed. Each application is now charged.
What the other new USCIS fees cost
These are the fees created by the 2025 law and in effect since January 1, 2026. They do not replace the ordinary USCIS fees; they are added to them and submitted as a separate payment.
Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
Filing an asylum application (I-589) | $100 |
Annual fee for a pending asylum application | $102 |
Initial employment authorization for an asylum applicant | $560 |
Renewal of employment authorization for an asylum applicant | $275 |
Initial employment authorization based on parole | $560 |
Renewal of employment authorization based on parole | $280 |
Initial employment authorization based on Temporary Protected Status | $560 |
Renewal of employment authorization based on Temporary Protected Status | $280 |
Application for Temporary Protected Status (I-821) | $510 |
Special immigrant juvenile petition (I-360) | $250 |
The April 29, 2026 rule added a minimum $24 fee for Form I-102, and from the same date the initial asylum filing fee is retained even when the form is rejected as improperly filed. The authoritative current list of amounts is maintained in Form G-1055, a new edition of which was published on September 9, 2026.
What changes on October 1, 2026
Immigration court and Board fees go up on October 1, 2026. The EOIR final rule of August 21, 2026 adjusts them for fiscal year 2027 using the change in CPI-U between July 2025 and July 2026, which was 3.4 percent. The new amounts apply to filings made on or after October 1; anything submitted without the correct fee will be rejected.
The practical point for anyone holding a decision: the amount is set by the filing date, not the mailing date. The Board does not observe the mailbox rule — a paper filing counts as filed on the day the clerk's office receives and date-stamps it, and an electronic filing through ECAS on the day it is successfully uploaded. An appeal treated as filed by September 30 costs $1,030; filed October 1 or later, $1,060. The agency documents describe the trigger differently — the August rule speaks of filings made on or after October 1, while last year's fee notice tied the change to the postmark — so around the changeover it is safer to file electronically or to budget for the new amount.
The annual asylum fee is a subtler case. The August rule expressly applies the same formula to it but does not list the amount as a separate line: Form I-589 is a DHS form, and the update is published separately. The formula set out in the rule yields $105, but that figure is not yet reflected in the rule's table, in the USCIS schedule or on the payment portal. In the last cycle USCIS introduced new amounts on January 1 and EOIR on February 1. Before paying after October 1, check the amount against the current notice, court order and payment portal.
Common mistakes that cost money and cases
Paying into whichever system feels familiar. A payment into the wrong system does not count, and the money is generally not refunded.
Assuming the USCIS 30-day window applies in court. In court the deadline is whatever the judge's order says, and it is often shorter.
Confusing the initial fee with the annual fee and assuming the first covers the second.
Selecting the wrong filing type in the portal dropdown, or mistyping the A-Number.
Closing the page without saving the receipt and the Tracking ID.
Failing to update the address with USCIS and the court after a move. A postal forwarding order does not update either.
Filing several applications for relief and paying only for the most expensive one — no longer permitted since June 2026.
Treating the mailing date as the filing date. For the Board what counts is when the clerk's office receives the package, and something mailed on September 30 may arrive in October at the new rate.
How to tell an official payment from a scam
The new fees have produced a wave of fake payment pages. The markers are simple: immigration court payments are accepted only at epay.eoir.justice.gov, USCIS payments only on sites in the uscis.gov domain, and the transaction itself runs through Pay.gov. Type the portal address by hand or open it from a bookmark rather than following a link from an email or a messaging app.
The second marker: nobody — no consultant, no notario, no intermediary — can secure a waiver or reduction of the annual asylum fee. The statute forbids it outright. An offer to "get the fee waived for a small charge" is itself a sign of fraud.
Frequently asked questions
Does every family member pay the annual fee?
The fee attaches to the application, not to the person. The court payment portal instructions state directly that when one application covers more than one person — the principal applicant and an accompanying spouse and children — a single payment is required, entered under the principal applicant's A-Number. Where family members have separate applications, which is common in court, each application is charged. There have been instances of courts billing each person listed on a single application; that is a reason to consult an attorney rather than pay automatically.
I filed for asylum a month ago. Do I owe $102?
No. The annual fee arises only after the application has been pending for a full year. Filing itself carries the separate one-time fee of $100.
Can I skip payment now that a court has stayed the penalties?
The stay did not eliminate the obligation to pay. It temporarily blocked the consequences USCIS adopted for nonpayment, and only at USCIS. In immigration court, missing the deadline still means the asylum claim is taken off the table without a decision on the merits.
What if the notice never arrived?
A missing letter does not cancel the fee. If the application has been pending at USCIS for more than a year, check the fee status yourself on the official payment page; if the case is in court, monitor the judge's orders and the electronic record.
Can the fee be waived for financial hardship?
No. The statute expressly bars any waiver or reduction of the annual asylum fee, and the same applies to the initial asylum filing fee. Form I-912 does not reach these payments.
What happens to my work permit?
The April USCIS rule provided for denial of an employment authorization application and termination of an existing document upon nonpayment, but the implementation of those consequences is stayed. In immigration court the annual fee is not directly tied to work authorization.
Is the money refunded if asylum is denied?
No. EOIR fees are not refunded when a case is denied, when a filing is rejected, or based on how long adjudication takes. Refunds are exceptional — a duplicate payment, for instance.
Will the fees go up next year?
Yes, annual indexing is built into the statute. Immigration court and Board fees rise 3.4 percent on October 1, 2026; the fiscal year 2027 amount for the annual asylum fee has not yet been officially reflected.
Official sources
Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
The only way to pay court and Board fees | |
Paying the annual fee when the case is at USCIS | |
Current amounts for court and the Board | |
Receipts, Tracking ID, refunds, ACH issues | |
How the annual fee is collected in court | |
The text of Matter of L-F-R- | |
Amounts effective October 1, 2026 | |
Portal-only payment, waivers, motions | |
Table of amounts effective January 1, 2026 | |
The full current list of amounts | |
Fee waivers and their limits | |
The text of the annual fee provision and the waiver bar |
This is journalism, not legal advice. It describes how the fees work as of September 9, 2026 and does not substitute for an assessment of an individual case: amounts, deadlines and consequences depend on where the application sits and on what your notice or court order says, and the litigation described here is still moving. For any question about payment, missed deadlines or the consequences of nonpayment, consult a licensed immigration attorney or an accredited representative, and verify amounts against the official sources listed above.