USCIS immigration forms

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issues a number of forms for people to submit to them relating to immigrant and non-immigrant visa statuses. These forms begin with the letter "I". None of the forms directly grants a United States visa (visas can only be issued by US consulates outside the United States), but approval of these forms may provide authorization for staying or extending one's stay in the United States as well as authorization for work. Some United States visas require an associated approved USCIS immigration form to be submitted as part of the application.

Although the term immigration form is used on this page, and the forms begin with the letter "I", many of the forms pertain to non-immigrant visa classifications.

The USCIS also issues some administrative request forms (AR) for purposes such as address change as well as G forms for other administrative purposes. The AR and G forms are generally filed in conjunction with a USCIS I form. The two most important G forms are the G-28 (notice of entry or appearance of attorney) and the G-1145 (e-notification of application/petition acceptance).

The USCIS also handles forms related to naturalization and citizenship. These forms begin with the letter "N" and are not discussed on this page.

There are two main forms that begin with the letter I and pertain to immigration status but are not managed by USCIS: Form I-20 (issued by educational institutions to students on a F visa status) and Form I-94 (issued by United States Customs and Border Protection when an alien enters the United States).

All USCIS forms are free to download. The filing fees vary by form, from free to several hundred dollars.

The filing fee for a form may not be the only fee that needs to be paid for the status being sought on the form. There may be additional fees associated with that status. For instance, Form I-129 is used to apply for H-1B status (among many other statuses).

Two of the forms, Form I-129 and Form I-140, are eligible for the Premium Processing Service, which requires the filing of Form I-907. As of 2015, this service costs $1225.

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