Immigration Benefits: INS Not Making Timely Deposits of Application Fees

摘要

One of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) primary functions is toprovide services or benefits that facilitate entry, residence, employment, and naturalization of legal immigrants. To recover the costs that it incurs in providing benefits, INS is authorized to charge fees to recipients of INS services. Individuals who apply for INS benefits must send their application form and appropriate fee, if any, to one of INS' 4 regional service centers or 33 district offices. Federal agencies, including INS, are generally required by Department of the Treasury regulations to deposit fees totaling $5,000 or more on the same day or day after they are collected. This report responds to your request that we determine the (1) extent to which INS made timely deposits of the fees that it collected from aliens who applied for benefits, and (2) potential costs to the government if INS fee deposits were not timely. In responding to your request, we analyzed data on applications that INS received during fiscal year 1999 and fees that INS was to deposit into the Immigration Examinations Fee Account (IEFA) in the U.S. Treasury.