USCIS to Mandate Electronic Payments for Applications

WASHINGTON— As previously announced, on Oct. 28, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will only accept electronic payments for paper-filed forms. Payments may be made either via credit card or debit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, or ACH debit transactions from a U.S. bank account using Form G-1650, Authorization for ACH transactions.

By requiring electronic payment, USCIS eliminates the need for benefit requestors and third-party payors to bring funds into field offices. This practice also complies with the transition to government-wide electronic payments required by Executive Order 14247, Modernizing Payments To and From America's Bank Account.

"Modernizing financial transactions to and from the federal government is a priority for the Trump administration," said USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser. "Over 90% of our payments come from checks and money orders, causing processing delays and increasing the risk of fraud and lost payments. This is a no-brainer move."

USCIS continues to accept online payments for forms filed online. USCIS encourages benefit requestors and their accredited representatives to use their USCIS account to file online through the guided process or the electronic PDF intake process, if either of these filing options is available for their form type. Benefit requestors and accredited representatives filing online have access to helpful instructions and tips on completing their forms. They can also pay their fees online using the secure pay.gov platform.

In limited instances, benefit requestors and third-party payors may be exempt from submitting electronic payments with their application, petition, or request. See Form G-1651, Exemption for Paper Fee Payment, for a list of exemptions.