DHS Proposes a 75 Percent Naturalization Fee Increase and an End to Fee Waivers: What the N-400 Proposal Would Change in Texas

What Changed, and When

On June 23, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register titled “Naturalization Application Fee Adjustments,” published at 91 FR 37500 under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0265. It covers two forms: Form N-400, the Application for Naturalization, and Form N-336, the Request for a Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization Proceedings.

In the words of the proposed rule itself, DHS proposes to:

• Adjust the fee for Form N-400 to $1,330 for paper filings and $1,280 for online filings. The current fees are $760 and $710, which the rule describes as increases of roughly 75 and 80 percent.
• Adjust the fee for Form N-336 to $1,475 for paper filings and $1,425 for online filings — increases of about 78 and 83 percent.
• End the reduced fee for Form N-400 for applicants whose household income is at or below 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. That reduced fee is currently $380.
• End fee waiver eligibility for applicants filing Form N-400 or Form N-336.
• Keep the existing exemptions for military applicants filing for naturalization under sections 328 and 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1439 and 1440. Current and former service members would remain exempt from these fees.

The rule states its purpose in its own terms: to adjust the fees for the two forms, including eliminating fee waivers and reduced fees, “so that their fees recover the full cost of their adjudication, according to the beneficiary-pays approach to fee setting.” The Federal Register notice also records that DHS “no longer believes naturalization benefit requests should get lower fees at the potential expense of other immigration benefits.”

The single most important fact on this page is that none of this is in effect. A notice of proposed rulemaking is a proposal. The notice states that “Written comments must be submitted on or before August 24, 2026,” and that the electronic docket accepts comments until midnight Eastern time at the end of that day. After the comment period closes, DHS reviews the comments and may issue a final rule, revise the proposal, or take no further action. Until a final rule is published with an effective date, the current fees and the current fee-relief options remain the ones that apply.

Who in Texas This Reaches

Texas is one of the four states — with California, New York and Florida — where the largest numbers of lawful permanent residents live, according to population estimates published by the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Green card holders in Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley and every other Texas metro make up a large share of the people the proposal would touch.

Within that group, the proposal reaches three sets of people differently:

• Applicants who pay the full fee today would pay $1,330 on paper or $1,280 online. DHS estimates the fee increases alone would move roughly $430 million a year from full-fee applicants to USCIS, and about $3.7 billion over ten years.
• Applicants who use the reduced fee or a fee waiver today would lose that option. DHS estimates the fee waiver change would move about $196 million a year from currently fee-waiver-eligible applicants to USCIS, and the reduced-fee change about $16.7 million a year. These are the households the change reaches hardest.
• Military applicants naturalizing under INA sections 328 or 329, and former service members, would stay exempt from these fees under the proposal.

Form N-336 is the form used to request a hearing after USCIS denies a naturalization application, so the second half of the proposal reaches people who have already been denied once and are deciding what to do next.

What This Changes Legally

Right now, nothing. USCIS fees are set by regulation in Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and a proposed rule has no legal effect. The changes described above would be made to proposed 8 CFR 106.2(b)(2) and 106.2(b)(3), which set the fees, and proposed 8 CFR 106.3(a)(3)(i), which governs fee waiver eligibility. Those sections read the same today as they did before June 23.

What would change if a final rule is issued in the proposed form is straightforward to state: the filing fee amounts, the availability of the reduced fee for households at or below 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and the ability to request a fee waiver on Form I-912 for these two specific forms. The military exemptions would be untouched. Fee waiver eligibility for other USCIS forms is outside the scope of this proposal.

DHS acknowledged one likely effect in the rule’s own cost-and-benefit discussion: increasing fees and eliminating fee waivers and reduced fees “might cause certain aliens who are eligible to become naturalized U.S. citizens to delay applying and paying the increased fee,” which the agency noted could produce more green card renewal filings later. The comment docket for the proposal shows more than 1,900 public comments received.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is a prediction about any individual case, and a general summary is not an answer about anyone’s own eligibility. What an immigration lawyer can review, on the specific facts, includes:

• Whether someone is eligible to naturalize at all right now — the five-year or three-year permanent residence period, continuous residence, physical presence, English and civics requirements, and the good moral character period.
• Whether a criminal record, a long trip abroad, a tax issue or an old immigration filing creates risk in an N-400, since USCIS reviews the whole immigration history when it adjudicates a naturalization application.
• Whether the reduced fee or a fee waiver is available today for a particular household, and what documentation supports a request under the rules as they currently stand.
• What follows a denial — how a Form N-336 request for a hearing compares with other options, and the deadlines that attach to each.
• Timing considerations for someone weighing a filing decision while a fee proposal is pending, given that the current rules are the ones in force.
• Accommodations and exceptions, including the medical disability exception to the English and civics requirements and the age-based exemptions.

Accredited nonprofit legal service providers and community citizenship clinics assist many Texans with naturalization, and for a straightforward case they are a real resource. Where there is a complicating fact in the record — an arrest, a removal history, a long absence, a prior denial — an experienced immigration attorney is the person equipped to look at it before anything is filed.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates here are facts rather than warnings. The proposal was published June 23, 2026. Written comments were due on or before August 24, 2026. No final rule has been issued, and no effective date exists for any of the changes described above. The fees in force today are the ones that apply today.

The part that consumes calendar time is not the filing itself. Court dispositions, tax transcripts, travel records, medical certifications and translated documents generally have to be requested from a third party, and an eligibility review that turns up a problem is far more useful before an application goes in than after. Talking to an immigration lawyer early gives more room to work with than talking to one after a deadline has passed. If a lawyer in our network offers an initial consultation, it is free.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Naturalization Application Fee Adjustments,” notice of proposed rulemaking, 91 FR 37500, Federal Register, June 23, 2026, DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0265 (primary document).
2. Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP, “DHS proposed rule increases N-400 naturalization filing fees and cuts reduced fees/waivers,” June 30, 2026.
3. Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP, “DHS Proposes Significant Increase in Filing Fees for Naturalization Applications and Related Filings.”
4. Ogletree Deakins, “DHS Proposes Increase to U.S. Citizenship Application Fees.”
5. DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, estimates of the lawful permanent resident population and the subpopulation eligible to naturalize.