Immigrants will now pay $1,000 fee while seeking parole in US

Starting Thursday, immigrants will have to pay a $1,000 fee while seeking parole in the U.S.

The fee is part of a provision from President Trump’s tax-and-spending package and is required of immigrants requesting temporary permission to enter and live in the U.S. while they seek a lawful avenue to remain in the country, NOTUS reported.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Wednesday announced that the Department of Homeland Security was publishing a Federal Register notice to implement the fee.

USCIS said that if they can "determine that we can approve your request for parole or re-parole and that it requires payment of the immigration parole fee, we will notify you that you must pay this fee before we can approve your request. The notice will have payment instructions and a deadline. We will not grant parole unless you pay the immigration parole fee as instructed and within the specified time period."

The fee comes as parole approval is declining rapidly.

USCIS approved 73% of the parole requests it processed from April through June, down from 82% during the same time frame last year, according to the agency’s latest data. In this fiscal year's third quarter, USCIS processed 58% fewer parole applications than it did the same period last year, with 410,416 applications still pending.

People seeking to enter the U.S. to receive medical treatment, attend a funeral, participate in a law enforcement investigation, or return from temporary travel will not have to pay the fee.