New USCIS Form I-824 Filing Instructions

What is a form I-824? 

If a party to an approved petition or application wants to change where the approval is sent, such as the national visa center or a consulate abroad or you just want a new copy for yourself, the person making the request must file a form with the USCIS.  That form is known as I-824 and requires the payment of a $340.00 fee. 

What has changed?

The USCIS has changed where the form must be filed.  The new filing chart is available here in the immigration knowledge base on this site.  The form, its instructions and related annoumcements are available at the USCIS website: USCIS Link

Comment

This is another example of how a user fee financed system causes costs and fees to escalate.  The USCIS has no incentive to keep its costs under control and so apparently chooses not to.  It is outrageous that they are charging $340.00 to send you a duplicate of your approval notice, or to send it to another government agency.  $340.00 to press the print button and mail the document (normally one page) at the government postage rate which is less than the 44 cents we mere humans pay.

This is failure to control costs is an important and often overlooked issue.  See my post on Aviation user fees for a similar discussion including actual immigraton cost increases.