US to make immigration applications online-only

The United States is moving to usher in a sweeping digital shift in its immigration system, with online applications for a wide range of benefits — including green cards, citizenship and asylum — set to become mandatory, as authorities seek to streamline processing, curb costs and move away from mountains of paper.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), in a new rule published in the Federal Register on Monday, said applicants will be required to use electronic filing for any form that has been available for online submission for at least 180 days.

The rule will also create a mechanism allowing USCIS to designate forms as online-only, provided the agency gives applicants at least 60 days’ advance notice.

The sweeping change could touch a broad spectrum of immigration services, including green card applications and renewals, family-based petitions, citizenship requests, asylum claims, employment authorisation applications and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) filings.

Under the new system, applicants will generally submit documents through a USCIS online account, either by completing the relevant form digitally or by uploading a PDF of the completed form along with supporting evidence.

USCIS said the move is part of its wider effort to accelerate the transition from paper-heavy processing and reduce its dependence on the Treasury Department’s lockbox service, which receives and processes applications sent by mail.

The agency argues that electronic filing will not merely speed up administrative machinery but also help reduce errors, improve efficiency and strengthen fraud detection and security screening, as immigration data becomes easier to access, process and analyse.

For applicants who are unable to file electronically, USCIS will provide an avenue to seek an exemption. They will be required to submit a new waiver request, which the agency will consider on a case-by-case basis.

Those granted an exemption will face a USD 25 filing fee.

The scale of the paper-based system underscores the financial and logistical burden behind the change. In fiscal year 2025, USCIS processed more than 14 million immigration benefit requests, while lockbox facilities handled approximately 453 million pages of paper submissions.

USCIS spent around USD 396 million operating its lockbox intake systems, in addition to more than USD 10 million on postage alone.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects mandatory electronic filing to significantly reduce the costs and labour associated with manual handling, data entry, shipping, storage and scanning, while also helping accelerate the movement of applications through adjudication workflows.

The digital overhaul marks another major step in the US government's effort to reshape immigration administration around faster, more accessible and data-driven processing, potentially transforming how millions of applicants interact with the system.

With PTI inputs