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IMMIGRATION: Work permits and green cards to cost more

Immigration officials are planning fee increases and new facilities in a move to expedite work permits, green cards and citizenship.

Federal authorities plan to increase fees for immigration documents next year and transfer services out of a fortress-like building on Biscayne Boulevard to four new facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties by 2008, the immigration service chief announced Friday.

Emilio T. González, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that the as-yet undetermined fee increase will affect all applications for immigration benefits ranging from work permits to green cards to naturalization.

The move out of the rented building is part of a new effort to bring services closer to immigrant communities, González said. The transfer also includes the citizenship office in the Brickell Avenue business district, he said. The locations for the new facilities are not yet determined.

The Miami move, González added, will serve as a pilot program that -- if successful -- will be replicated in other U.S. cities with large immigrant populations from New York to Los Angeles.

Decentralization of facilities marks the second major innovation since the Immigration and Naturalization Service ceased to exist and its functions were absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

The first was InfoPass, an Internet-based system through which people can schedule appointments online. InfoPass ended long lines nationwide.

At a press briefing in the Miami immigration office, González also said that:

? A backlog of 8,000 to 9,000 immigration documents will be eliminated within 30 days. About one million other applications remain stalled because of lengthy background checks conducted by various agencies and U.S. rules that limit the number of visas per country.

? A program to grant U.S. visas to Cuban doctors who defect abroad has been ''hugely successful'' because ''many, many'' applicants had contacted U.S. embassies and consulates. González would not say how many because it could compromise the safety of defectors and their families.

? Temporary Protected Status for undocumented Haitian immigrants is unlikely and that the existing one for Nicaraguans and Hondurans, renewed for 12 months earlier this year, will be reviewed before it expires.

The new immigration service facilities -- three in Miami and one in Broward -- will be designed to make immigrants feel welcome.

''Often, the first encounter immigrants have with the federal government is immigration and I want that experience to be good,'' González said.

``I want a state-of-the-art facility, comfortable, with ample parking, security. I don't want a ratty building.''