Digital Lock on U.S. Doors for India
Pay in Dollars or Stay Out, Says USCIS
Washington/New Delhi: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has begun enforcing a policy requiring all immigration-related filing fees to be paid electronically, ending the use of paper cheques and money orders from October 28, 2025. The shift, authorised under Executive Order 14247, “Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account,” signed on March 25, 2025, marks a structural reform in how applicants interact with the U.S. immigration system.
Applicants must now use either Form G-1450 to authorise credit or debit card payments or Form G-1650 for direct debit transactions from a U.S. bank account via the Pay.gov system. USCIS has also introduced Form G-1651, which provides narrowly defined exemptions for cases such as emergencies or applicants lacking access to U.S. financial instruments. The change effectively standardises federal fee collections, streamlining reconciliation and reducing exposure to fraud. According to USCIS policy guidance, more than 90 per cent of its payments previously arrived through paper instruments, leading to delays, lost payments, and refund disputes. By moving to Pay.gov, USCIS expects faster processing, real-time verification, and reduced manual errors. The agency handles more than a million benefit requests annually, and the new system aims to eliminate one of the most persistent administrative bottlenecks in its workflow.
For India, this reform carries particular weight. Indian nationals account for roughly 72 per cent of H-1B visa petitions — the largest share of any country — and form a substantial portion of applicants for other U.S. immigration categories, including student and family-based visas. However, the new payment system poses practical hurdles for many Indian applicants and sponsoring entities. Transactions through the U.S. banking network require access to American-issued debit or credit cards or intermediaries based in the United States. While prepaid international cards are permitted through Form G-1450, early experiences show that verification failures, declined transactions, and refund lags are not uncommon. Immigration law firms in Delhi and Mumbai confirm that companies and individuals now need to revise payment procedures or rely on U.S.-based affiliates to complete filings without risk of rejection.
The change reflects the United States’ domestic compliance priorities, but its design exposes a global imbalance. India’s own digital payment infrastructure — including Bharat Kosh, SBI ePay, and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — allows seamless, multi-currency, and real-time transactions, demonstrating how digital transformation can remain globally inclusive. The U.S. model, in contrast, is built around domestic banking safeguards rather than transnational access. For Indian applicants, this creates an ironic digital bottleneck: despite being among the world’s most digitally integrated populations, they face fresh barriers in navigating an American system designed for internal security rather than global mobility.
Officials and legal experts note that initial disruption is inevitable, with refund delays and rejected payments likely in the first phase. However, once stabilised, the transition is expected to reduce USCIS backlogs and improve traceability. The broader policy context — the federal government’s push to modernise all incoming and outgoing payments under Executive Order 14247 — situates this reform within a wider U.S. administrative overhaul. Still, for India, the implications are immediate and tangible: a high-dependence applicant group adjusting to a system optimised for domestic convenience, not global interoperability.
The USCIS reform, while rooted in efficiency, highlights a deeper asymmetry between the U.S. government’s internal modernisation drive and the global realities of immigration. For hundreds of thousands of Indian professionals, students, and families seeking American visas, the digital transition represents progress in form but friction in function — a modernisation that promises long-term speed but imposes new short-term hurdles at the very gateway of opportunity.
– global bihari bureau
