[teachermom]

PLEASE, read this and respond. This effects all families adopting internationally. We can stop this, together. Let your voice be heard by April 2!!!!

Fees are increasing at USCIS, and there is very little time left to voice our objection. The following is an outline on how the increase affects adoption and what we can do, as a group, to stop the increase. Please feel free to forward this message to any agency, listserv, group or individual who can help to eliminate the fee increases affecting adoption. We only have a week left to act on this.

Fee Increase Proposal
On February 1, 2007, USCIS published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in the Federal Register that would substantially raise filing fees for most types of cases. If the proposed rule is adopted, filing fees would increase by an average of 66% over current fees. The proposed rule is subject to a 60-day comment period that ends on April 2, 2007. At the end of the comment period, USCIS will review and consider the comments it has received on its proposed rule. USCIS will then send its final proposal to the Office of Management and Budget for review. The OMB will make a final decision on the fee increase and issue the final rule

Fortunately, the “adjusted” fees will not take effect until the public has an opportunity to comment. The comment period is 60 days beginning February 1, 2007, and ending on April 2, 2007. The increase in fees should not become effective until June 2007 at the earliest.

Adoption-Related Petitions Affected by the Proposed Increase
I-600/600A Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative from $545 to $670
N-565 Application for Replacement of Certificate of Citizenship (used for name changes) from $220 to $380
N-600 Application for Certificate of Citizenship from $255 to $460
Biometric Services (fingerprints) from $70 to $80

Submit Your Comments to USCIS by April 2, 2007
Anyone may comment on the proposed regulation. Those interested in commenting should take time to review the proposed regulation and formulate logical, potentially persuasive statements. Comments will be made public, as they will be posted as submitted at Regulations.gov. One should NOT include any personal detail unless s/he is willing to share it freely. While no one likes prices to go up, simply complaining about the increase in costs is unlikely to have an impact.

Comments must be received by April 2, 2007, and must reference the agency name (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), as well as the docket number (USCIS-2006-0044). Comments may be submitted at Regulations.gov the Federal eRulemaking Portal, or via mail or courier, in hardcopy, disk, or CD-ROM form to:

Director, Management Division
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Department of Homeland Security
111 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, 3rd Floor
Washington D.C. 20529

Voicing your opinion makes you part of the democratic process, and this is how the U.S. government and legal systems are supposed to work. Although most of us hesitate to publicly comment, the government really does carefully consider the content of comments, as well as the sheer number of those responding. When USCIS introduced regulations to reduce the time for B-2 tourist visits from six months to 30 days, for example, there were more than 10,000 comments. That convinced the USCIS to shelve the proposal. Remember, the key is the QUANTITY of responses they get. It should not be difficult to get at least 10,000 of us to comment. Please take the time today to do this.

Together, we CAN make a difference!*

* Written by: Patti Urban, Director of Development, New England, Reaching Out Thru International Adoption. This is not an endorsement of Reaching Out or Patti Urban, just passing along vital information


Here are instructions someone posted on another group that make it
easy to find:

Go to Regulations.gov Choose
"Search for: Documents Open for Public Comment". From the dropdown
menu for Agency, select USCIS (the very last one in the list). Under
Document Type, select Proposed Rules. Under Keyword or ID, type in
USCIS-2006-0044, then Exact Phrase and Submit. It'll bring up a
Document Search Results. In the far right column (Comments Add/Due
By), there is a yellow icon. Click on it and it'll bring up a fill
in the blanks kind of form. Remember that all comments are public
information, so you should not include personal details unless you
want that information shared publicly

[Dearonebaby]

Thank you for alerting us... I responded and am circulating your message to enlist more help. thank you for letting us know.
Sarah k