You filed Form I-589 and your asylum case is still pending. Maybe you are waiting for a USCIS asylum interview. Maybe your case is already before an immigration judge. Then you receive a notice about an Annual Asylum Fee, see a $102 charge online, or hear that a federal court recently changed the rules.
That can leave you with a practical question: do you actually have to pay it, and what happens if you already missed the deadline?
Federal law requires an Annual Asylum Fee for certain asylum applications that remain pending, and the fee for fiscal year 2026 is $102. The rules are different depending on whether your case is pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or in Immigration Court, and an August 5, 2026 federal court order also changed how USCIS can currently enforce the consequences of a missed payment.
If you live in Reno or elsewhere in Northern Nevada, the first step is identifying where your asylum case is pending, whether a fee is currently due, and which payment instructions apply to your case.
Why Is There an Annual Asylum Fee in 2026?
Congress created the Annual Asylum Fee in the 2025 budget reconciliation law commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law requires a fee for each year that an asylum application remains pending, in addition to the separate filing fee that now applies when Form I-589 is initially filed.
The annual fee began at $100 and is subject to inflation adjustments. For fiscal year 2026, the Annual Asylum Fee is $102. Unlike many other immigration filing fees, the Annual Asylum Fee cannot be waived or reduced.
That does not mean every person with an asylum claim should simply send $102 to the same agency.
Before paying anything, determine whether your Form I-589 is pending with USCIS or with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, which operates the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals.
Is Your Asylum Case Pending With USCIS?
If you filed an affirmative asylum application with USCIS and the case is still pending there, USCIS has its own process for collecting the Annual Asylum Fee.
USCIS currently states that applicants whose asylum applications remained pending for the entire period from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025, must pay the Annual Asylum Fee. For Form I-589 applications filed after October 1, 2024, the fee becomes due once the application has remained pending with USCIS for 365 days and again for each year that it remains pending on that anniversary date.
For the first annual payment, you generally do not need to calculate the deadline yourself. USCIS says it will send a personal notice explaining:
- That the Annual Asylum Fee is due.
- The amount you must pay.
- The payment deadline.
- How to make the payment.
If you receive one of those notices, do not assume it is a routine letter that can wait. Read the deadline, confirm that the A-number and asylum receipt information belong to your case, and keep a copy of the notice and any payment confirmation.
What Changed for USCIS Asylum Cases on August 5, 2026?
On August 5, 2026, a federal district court in Massachusetts issued an order staying USCIS's implementation of the consequences established by its April 2026 rule for failing to pay the Annual Asylum Fee.
USCIS now states that, because of that order, it is allowing asylum applicants who missed the payment date on their notice to make the outstanding payment while the litigation continues. USCIS has reopened its Annual Asylum Fee payment portal for those cases.
The important distinction is that the court order did not simply erase the Annual Asylum Fee itself.
Instead, the order currently limits USCIS's implementation of the consequences it had adopted for failure to pay. Before the court's action, the April 2026 rule provided that failure to pay the Annual Asylum Fee within 30 days of USCIS's notice would result in rejection of the pending Form I-589.
Because the litigation is ongoing, someone who missed a USCIS payment deadline should not assume either that the fee no longer matters or that their asylum application has automatically been lost. Check the current USCIS notice and payment portal and have the status of the case reviewed if there is uncertainty about what happened.
What If Your Asylum Case Is in Immigration Court?
The rules are different when Form I-589 is pending before an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals.
EOIR currently requires the $102 Annual Asylum Fee when an asylum application has been pending for at least one year on or after October 1, 2025. If the application remains pending for another 365 days after the first fee becomes due, another annual payment is required, and the obligation can continue for each additional year the asylum application remains pending.
The immigration judge or BIA provides a written order concerning payment. EOIR requires the fee to be paid electronically through the EOIR Payment Portal, and applicants should save or print the payment receipt after completing the transaction.
That payment process is separate from the USCIS Annual Asylum Fee portal.
If your case has moved from USCIS to Immigration Court, or you are unsure where your asylum application is currently pending, do not rely only on an older receipt notice. Review your most recent USCIS and court documents, including any written fee order, so you can identify which payment instructions apply to your case.
What Can Happen If You Do Not Pay the Fee in Immigration Court?
For cases before EOIR, missing an Annual Asylum Fee deadline can directly affect the asylum claim.
In Matter of L-F-R-, a 2026 precedential decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals held that immigration judges may set deadlines for payment of the Annual Asylum Fee and that an asylum application should be pretermitted or deemed abandoned when the applicant fails to pay within the prescribed deadline.
That makes the written payment order important.
If an immigration judge gives you a deadline, do not assume that the August 2026 federal court order affecting USCIS automatically protects an Immigration Court case. The USCIS litigation discussed above concerns DHS's implementation of the fee consequences, while EOIR has its own payment rules and a precedential BIA decision addressing nonpayment.
The BIA also clarified an important limitation: the Annual Asylum Fee applies to the asylum claim itself. In Matter of L-F-R-, the Board held that the annual fee and the consequences for failing to pay it do not extend to a separate application for statutory withholding of removal or a request for protection under the Convention Against Torture.
That distinction can matter in a removal case, but it should not be treated as a reason to ignore an asylum-fee order.
How Do You Know Whether You Need to Pay Right Now?
If your asylum case has been pending for a year or longer, start with the documents you actually have.
Look for:
- A USCIS Annual Asylum Fee notice.
- Your Form I-589 receipt notice.
- Your A-number and receipt number.
- Any recent USCIS asylum correspondence.
- An immigration judge's written order concerning the fee.
- Your most recent Immigration Court or BIA paperwork.
- A prior Annual Asylum Fee receipt, if you already paid once.
Then identify which agency currently has your Form I-589.
If it remains with USCIS, follow the USCIS notice and current USCIS Annual Asylum Fee instructions. If it is pending before Immigration Court or the BIA, follow the applicable EOIR order and payment process.
Do not send a payment simply because someone else's asylum case reached its one-year mark at the same time as yours. Filing dates, case transfers, prior payments, and the agency currently handling the application can affect what you need to do.
If your notices or court records do not make that clear, Smit Law Group can help people in Northern Nevada review those documents and understand which Annual Asylum Fee requirements apply to their case.
What Should You Do If You Already Missed an Asylum Fee Deadline?
Do not ignore the notice because the date has passed.
If the missed deadline came from USCIS, the August 5 federal court order is particularly important. USCIS currently says applicants with outstanding Annual Asylum Fee payments can use the reopened payment portal while the litigation remains pending.
If the deadline came from an immigration judge or the BIA, the situation is different. Under current EOIR precedent, failure to pay within the prescribed deadline can result in the asylum application being pretermitted or deemed abandoned. Determine exactly what the court ordered, whether the deadline has passed, and what procedural options may still exist.
In either situation, keep copies of the notice, payment receipt, court order, and any correspondence about the fee.
Get Clear About What Your Asylum Case Requires Next
A pending asylum case can already involve long periods of uncertainty. A new annual payment requirement, different USCIS and Immigration Court procedures, and an ongoing federal lawsuit can make it harder to know what you are actually expected to do.
At Smit Law Group, our Northern Nevada immigration attorneys help individuals and families in Reno, Washoe County, and surrounding communities understand where their asylum case stands, what notices or court orders require action, and what deadlines need immediate attention.
If you received an Annual Asylum Fee notice, have an asylum case that has been pending for more than a year, or already missed a payment deadline, contact Smit Law Group to schedule a consultation. We can review the agency or court handling your case, the notices you received, and the next steps that apply to your particular situation.
Disclaimer: The articles on this blog are for informational purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. Immigration rules and litigation concerning the Annual Asylum Fee continue to change. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.