USCIS declared SIJS application fee non-waivable, cutting off abused children from congressional immigration protection
On July 22, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a Federal Register notice declaring that the $250 Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application fee is non-waivable, effective immediately, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The agency acknowledged the law did not include an explicit no-waiver provision but interpreted the mandatory fee language as barring any waiver. SIJS, created by Congress in 1990, provides immigration protection to children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and who cannot safely return to their countries of origin. The removal of the fee waiver made the protection financially inaccessible to the indigent children it was designed to protect.