Form G-1450: USCIS Credit Card Payment Authorization

Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, is the one-page form you place on top of a mailed USCIS application to let the agency charge your filing fee to a credit, debit, or prepaid card issued by a U.S. bank. USCIS no longer accepts personal checks, business checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks for paper filings unless you qualify for a specific exemption, so G-1450 is one of the two standard ways to pay when you mail in a petition.¹

When You Need It

You need Form G-1450 only when you are filing a paper application, petition, or request by mail to a USCIS Lockbox and want to pay by card. The form authorizes USCIS to run the charge through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Pay.gov system.¹ The form itself is free; you pay only the fees required by the underlying application.

If you file online through the USCIS portal, skip this form. Online filers pay directly through Pay.gov as part of electronic submission.²

Cards USCIS Will Accept

USCIS accepts cards on four networks:

Visa
MasterCard
American Express
Discover

The card must be issued by a U.S. bank or financial institution. Cards issued by foreign banks are not accepted.¹ Prepaid cards on those four networks are fine as long as they come from a U.S. financial institution, but gift cards are not.³

What Goes on the Form

Download the current PDF from the USCIS website. The form asks for:

The applicant’s name (the person filing the underlying petition or request).
The cardholder’s full name as it appears on the card.
The billing address tied to the card, with city, state, and ZIP.
The card number and CVV security code.
The expiration date, which must still be valid when USCIS processes the payment.
The exact dollar amount of the filing fee plus any biometric services fee.

Every entry has to match what your bank has on file. A mismatch on the name, address, or card number can cause the transaction to be declined.⁴

Sign It by Hand

The cardholder must sign the form in ink. USCIS will not accept typed or digital signatures and will not process the payment without a handwritten authorization.⁴ Print, sign, then mail.

Someone Else Can Pay Your Fee

The cardholder does not have to be the applicant. G-1450 has separate sections for applicant and cardholder, and USCIS does not require any particular relationship between them. A relative, employer, or attorney can pay from their own card, and that person is the one who signs.⁴

Splitting a Payment Across Cards

If one card cannot cover the full fee, use more than one. Fill out a separate G-1450 for each card and make sure the amounts add up to the exact total. A $400 fee could go on two cards at $200 each. The total for a single benefit request cannot exceed $24,999.³

USCIS recommends against putting fees for multiple applications on a single G-1450. If you are mailing more than one application together, use a separate G-1450 per application. Combining them creates a risk: if any application in the package is defective, USCIS may reject the entire package, including the ones filed correctly.³

How to Include It in Your Package

Place the completed G-1450 on the very top of your application package so it is the first thing intake staff sees.⁴ If you are splitting payment, stack all the G-1450s on top. Mail the package to the Lockbox address listed under “Where to File” on the USCIS page for the specific form you are submitting.²

After USCIS Processes the Charge

If the Payment Goes Through

Once USCIS receives your package and successfully charges the card, you receive a Form I-797C, Notice of Action, confirming that your application has been accepted for processing. The I-797C is a receipt only. It does not mean USCIS has decided whether you qualify for the benefit you asked for.⁵

If the Card Is Declined

USCIS will not try the charge again. The agency may reject the entire package for nonpayment and send a notice explaining why. You will need to refile from scratch, which can cost real time in a time-sensitive category. The refiling must include a new G-1450; USCIS will not reuse the one from the rejected package.³

Common reasons for a decline are an expired card, an insufficient limit, a billing address that does not match, or the bank treating the charge as suspicious. Checking every field on the form against your bank records before you seal the envelope is the simplest safeguard.

If You Would Rather Not Pay by Card

You have two other options for a mailed filing. Form G-1650, Authorization for ACH Transactions, lets USCIS debit the fee directly from a U.S. checking or savings account. It works the same way as G-1450 — placed on top of the package, no additional cost — and the account must be at a U.S. banking institution.⁶

If you have no access to banking or electronic payment, you can request an exemption to pay by check, money order, bank draft, or cashier’s check using Form G-1651, Exemption for Paper Fee Payment. Qualifying grounds include lack of access to banking services, undue hardship from electronic payment, and national security considerations.⁷

1
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (USCIS). Form G-1450, Instructions for Authorization for Credit Card Transactions
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Authorization for Credit Card Transactions
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Pay With a Credit Card by Mail
4
USCIS. Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Authorization for ACH Transactions
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Exemption for Paper Fee Payment