The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they are expanding their credit card payment pilot program to the Vermont Service Center. Petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, for O and P nonimmigrants can pay the filing fees with a credit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions.
With an intent to reduce paperwork and digitalize the entire system, USCIS has been accepting digital payments at the Nebraska Service Center, which further expanded to the Texas Service Center. Once the pilot program is assessed, they will expand this payment option for other forms or other service centers.
Currently, USCIS allows for making payments through a credit card for several other immigration petitions, thus facilitating an efficient and quicker process for application procedures. This involves being able to make payments for the filing fees of nearly 41 fee-based forms including I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, I-90 Application to replace Permanent Resident Card, and N-400 Application for Naturalization among others.
Going forward applicants paying their filing fee have to use the Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transaction to process their payment. USCIS takes precaution when it comes to personal information being divulged. A system called Pay.gov is a secure portal operated by the US Department of Treasury that will destroy the credit card information contained in the G-1450 form once payment goes through.
The following credit cards are accepted by USCIS to submit filing fees:
- Visa
- MasterCard
- American Express and
- Discover
Earlier, credit card payments for naturalization forms filed at Lockbox facilities were already being accepted. This extension of credit card usage to all filing fees makes payment quicker and ensures there is a paper-trail to verify payment on both ends.
USCIS had previously opened up the ability to apply for US citizenship as well as replace green cards online.
