Immigration security

Immigration fees jump for the first time since 2010, making it tougher for would-be Americans

It just got considerably more expensive to be an immigrant seeking U.S. naturalization.

For the first time since 2010, the Department of Homeland Security hiked a range of administrative fees for citizenship applications — in a few cases more than doubling the costs of key services. Any new petitions filed after Dec. 23 will not be accepted unless they include the higher fees.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency charged with handling immigrant applications, said in a statement the proceeds will help cover detecting fraud, processing cases and a range of other administrative costs, in what USCIS called a "weighted average" price hike of 21 percent.