The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would increase certain immigration and naturalization visa fees, including H-1B temporary visas used by international faculty, and visas used by former students participating in Optional Practical Training (OPT) in the U.S. 
 
USCIS is proposing the fee increases to help with operating costs, reestablish and maintain timely case processing, and prevent the accumulation of case backlogs that resulted from both workforce losses during the pandemic and recent caseloads returning to pre-pandemic levels. 
 
The NPRM has a 60-day comment period that ends on March 6, 2023.  NAICU is assessing the impact this would have on private, nonprofit colleges and universities and is likely to join in higher education community comments pending the outcome of that assessment.  USCIS has also issued FAQs on the proposed fee rule.