Immigration Plans to Hike Fees U. S.

Immigration plans to hike fees, spread out servicesBY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy at MiamiHerald.com
Federal authorities are planning to increase fees for immigration documents next year and transfer their services out of a fortress-like building on Biscayne Boulevard to four new facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties by 2008, the immigration service chief announced today.

Emilio Gonzalez, head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told reporters that an as-yet undetermined fee increase will affect all applications for immigration benefits ranging from work permits to green cards to naturalization.

The move out of the Biscayne building, Gonzalez said, is part of a new effort to decentralize immigration services and make it easier for immigrants to seek and obtain documents closer to their homes in the community. He said the move in Miami will serve as a pilot program that, if successful, will be implemented in other U.S. cities with large immigrant populations from New York to Los Angeles.

Gonzalez's remarks came during an hourlong briefing for reporters at the immigration service building, 7880 Biscayne Blvd., where services have operated since 1983 in Miami.

The new facilities, three in Miami-Dade and one in Broward, will be modern and comfortable -- specifically designed to make immigrants feel welcome, Gonzalez said.

''Often, the first encounter immigrants have with the federal government is with immigration, and I want that experience to be good,'' Gonzalez said. ``I want a state-of-the-art facility, comfortable, with ample parking, security. I don't want a ratty building.''

By buzbeech on Oct 27, 2006, 12:12 in Visa & paperwork.

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