In a huge and largely unexpected development, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will no longer charge a filing fee for adult intercountry adoptees who acquired citizenship while under the age of 18 but still need to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600).
The fee exemption will save intercountry adoptees thousands of dollars and will remove what is the largest barrier for many adoptees who need to secure proof of US citizenship.
Currently, the filing fee for Form N-600 is $1,170.00, and it will increase to $1,335.00 on April 1, 2024. Under the new rules that also go into effect on that date, however, adult intercountry adoptees who apply for a Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-600) will not be charged a fee. They will pay $0.00 to file form N-600, which can also be filed online.
It’s yet to be determined how the process will specifically work for adoptees or their attorneys in applying for a Certificate of Citizenship once the new rule is in place. We will provide a FAQ and other information and as soon as we learn more. At a minimum, any intercountry adoptee who needs to secure a Certificate of Citizenship should wait until the fee exemption becomes effective on April 1, unless other circumstances require filing now.
The fee exemption does not apply to the filing fee for naturalizations (Form N-400), which will decrease slightly under the new rules, from $725 to $710.
I am unable to find where this was announced on USCIS’s website. Do you mind posting where this information is? Their website still states that there is a fee for the N-600 form
thank you!
The fee change is not yet effective. It will be in place on April 1, 2024. At the same time, we may not see a “change” in the listed filing fee for the N-600 on the main page for the form. Instead, adoptees will need to learn and know that the exemption exists and to request it. We also don’t know how that process will work yet.
The announcement came in the form of a published “final rule,” and it is buried in that publication, which is available here. We also plan an FAQ once more information becomes available.
So my daughter was adopted into the US from China around 2002, as a young child. At that time the adoption agency said the N-600 COS (which was $100 then) was not required because current law stated that adoptees were already deemed citizens when entering the US. But, now I hear the COS is a good thing to have because, even though you may have a valid passport and birth certificates, some job opportunities are requiring the certificate, plus we feel more comfortable having it. But the filing fee is a killer. How confident are you that the new filing fee exemption will indeed happen on April 1, 2024?
While nothing is ever guaranteed, this looks pretty firm, and it would be very hard to undo, as enormous resources went into making these rule changes. The thing we don’t know yet is how the exemption will be processed, but once it rolls out we’ll have a better understanding.
And, yes, it’s best for intercountry adoptees to have three things: a Certificate of Citizenship (or a Certificate of Naturalization); a passport book; and a passport card.
—Greg