Immigration Fees to Rise WASHINGTON (AP) - Becoming an American citizen could soon cost almost twice as much. The Bush administration will propose nearly doubling the fee charged applicants for U.S. citizenship and significantly increasing fees for other immigration benefits, congressional and administration officials said. Fees for a wide variety of immigration services would rise an average of 66 percent, said two government officials who did not want to be named in advance of the administration's formal announcement of the proposal. The current fee of $330 to apply for citizenship would rise to slightly less than $600, an administration official said. Other fee increases are possible for green cards conveying legal residency, which now cost $325. Applicants also now pay a $70 fingerprinting fee in each case. Fees also are paid for things such as work permits, replacing lost green cards and petitions to adopt orphans from other countries. The proposed fee increases would not be final until after a public comment period. Congressional Democrats last week warned in a letter to Emilio Gonzalez, director of the Homeland Security Department's Citizenship and Immigration Services, that they planned to review the agency's analyses behind any proposed immigration fee increases. The letter was signed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., immigration subcommittee chairman Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and immigration subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Immigration advocates have been bracing for the expected jump in fees. William Ramos, Washington director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said the increases are ``just going to be devastating to our communities.'' ’It will basically create another obstacle for those who want to realize their dream of becoming American citizens,'' Ramos said. Citizenship and Immigration Services covers its costs with application fees. The agency is required to do a fee analysis every two years to determine whether money raised from fees is covering costs. The agency last raised its fees in 2004, citing the cost of more intense background checks in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Immigrant advocates long have argued that the agency's costs cannot be absorbed by application fees. They want Congress to appropriate money to help pay costs. Large fee increases would be heavily felt in the Asian community, where two-thirds of the population in the U.S. is foreign-born, said Traci Hong, director of the immigration program for the Asian American Justice Center. About 70 percent of foreign-born Asians in the country become American citizens, a high rate for immigrants. Hong worried that higher naturalization fees would slow that rate.

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