How Much Does an Immigration Appeal Cost?

Every immigration appeal has two cost layers, and conflating them is the most common budgeting error.

First is the government filing fee — a fixed amount charged by EOIR or USCIS to accept the appeal or motion. It is the same regardless of how strong or weak your case is, and it must be paid (or formally waived) for the filing to be accepted.

Second is professional fees — what an attorney charges to analyze the record, identify appealable errors, research the law, and write the brief. This is where total cost actually swings, often by an order of magnitude, depending on the forum (BIA vs. federal circuit), the length and complexity of the record, and whether the matter involves a novel legal question. A straightforward BIA appeal and a contested circuit court petition for review can sit at opposite ends of the spectrum even though both are 'an immigration appeal.'

The fee table at 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(1) sets the government's price in two parts: the older EOIR fee authorized by section 286(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and a second fee added by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Both are owed, and the total is what you actually pay.

For an appeal to the Board from an Immigration Judge's decision (Form EOIR-26), that is $110 plus $920, for a total of $1,030. An appeal from a DHS officer's decision (Form EOIR-29) costs the same $1,030. An appeal in a practitioner disciplinary case (Form EOIR-45) runs $675 plus $1,355, or $2,030.

Motions are priced separately at 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(2), and they are not cheaper than the appeal. A motion to reopen or reconsider a decision of an Immigration Judge is $145 plus $920, or $1,065; the same motion aimed at a decision of the Board is $110 plus $920, or $1,030. Where the motion rests exclusively on an application for relief that carries no fee of its own, the EOIR portion drops to nothing but the $920 remains.

Two practical notes. Under 8 CFR 1103.7(b)(3), when one decision covers two or more people and the appeal or motion is filed on their behalf together, only one fee is due. And under 8 CFR 1103.7(a)(1), paying is not filing: the payment does not by itself put anything before the Board or the immigration court. USCIS appeals on Form I-290B are outside this table and carry their own fee set by USCIS.

A respondent who genuinely cannot pay may ask the Board to excuse the fee, and the procedure is set out at 8 CFR 1003.8(a)(3). The request goes in on a Fee Waiver Request (Form EOIR-26A), including a declaration signed under penalty of perjury about inability to pay, and it must be filed along with the Notice of Appeal or the motion — not afterwards.

If the request fails to establish inability to pay, the filing is not deemed properly filed. The regulation softens that with a cure period: the Board grants 15 days to re-file with either the fee or a new waiver request, and tolls the filing deadline during those 15 days. That tolling is the reason a defective waiver is survivable — but only if you are watching for the Board's rejection.

Some filings carry no fee at all under 8 CFR 1003.8(a)(2), which is worth checking before you reach for a waiver: a custody bond appeal, a motion filed while an appeal or motion is already pending, a motion asking only for a stay of removal, anything filed by DHS, and a motion agreed upon by all parties and filed jointly.

A waiver addresses only the government fee. It does not touch attorney fees, which remain the larger and more variable part of the total for a represented appeal.

Attorney fees for an immigration appeal are not one-size-fits-all, and the same matter can be quoted very differently by different firms. The main cost drivers are the forum and the record.

Forum. A BIA appeal brief is typically less expensive than a federal circuit court of appeals petition for review, which involves a more demanding standard, a formal briefing schedule, and the procedural rigor of federal appellate practice. A motion to reopen or reconsider sits somewhere in between, depending on the evidentiary showing required.

Record and complexity. A long hearing transcript, a fact-intensive asylum claim, multiple grounds of error, or a novel legal issue all increase the hours required. Much of an attorney's time goes into reading the record, legal research, and drafting and cite-checking the brief — the labor-intensive work that scales with complexity. Fee structures also vary: some attorneys quote a flat fee for a defined scope (e.g., a BIA brief), while others bill hourly, and add-ons like a stay of removal or oral argument can change the total. Because of this variability, get a written scope and fee agreement, and ask specifically what is and is not included.

If you map the hours, the expense of an appeal concentrates in drafting: synthesizing the record, finding and verifying the controlling authority, and writing a brief that survives appellate scrutiny. Citation accuracy is not optional at this level — a single fabricated, miscited, or mischaracterized case can undermine credibility with the BIA or a circuit panel and waste billable time on cleanup.

That is precisely the cost center that drafting technology can compress. The filing fee is fixed and the strategic judgment is irreducibly a lawyer's job, but the hours spent assembling and checking a first draft are exactly where efficiency gains translate into either lower client cost or higher firm margin.

ImmAppeal is drafting software for immigration attorneys and small firms. It produces a rigorous first draft of a BIA appeal brief or a federal circuit petition-for-review brief typically in under 30 minutes, with every citation checked against our library of published decisions — with a verification report that flags anything the check cannot confirm.

For a firm, this reshapes the cost equation: the most labor-intensive, hourly-heavy part of the appeal — drafting and cite-checking — is collapsed from days into a starting draft you refine, letting you offer more competitive flat fees or take on more appeals without sacrificing quality. ImmAppeal does not change the government filing fee, and it does not replace legal judgment.

ImmAppeal produces a draft only and is not legal advice. A licensed attorney must review, verify the current filing fee and deadline, tailor the brief to the record, and approve it before filing. Generate a citation-checked draft to see how much of the drafting cost you can take out of an appeal.