Immigration attorneys are telling asylum applicants to go back to the USCIS annual asylum fee page now: the payment screen at my.uscis.gov is accepting payments again — including from people who were previously shown a "payment period expired" message. The advice converging across attorney channels is the same: log in with your A-number and receipt number, pay whatever shows as due, screenshot everything — including a no-balance-due screen — send the proof to your attorney, and don't assume the screen stays open.
The story so far
The annual asylum fee comes from H.R. 1: anyone whose Form I-589 remains pending for at least a year owes a yearly fee — $100 at rollout, currently $102. USCIS announced consequences for unpaid annual asylum fees , and starting May 29, 2026, began re-sending payment notices with a 30-day deadline to people who had received earlier notices but had not paid.
The payment mechanics, however, were messy from the start. Attorneys report clients who never received a notice, or who filed online and got no notification, only to check their status and find a message saying they had missed the payment window. In an Instagram reel posted August 14 as a collab between @bushralaw (The Law Offices of Hani S. Bushra) and Turkish-speaking immigration attorney Pınar Çağlayan (@avukat_pinar.caglayan), Çağlayan describes exactly that pattern:
Herhangi bir şekilde makbuz almadığı halde veya online başvuru yapıp da kendisine bir bildirim gelmediği halde sistemde statülerini kontrol ettiklerinde size belirtilen zaman aralığında ödemeyi kaçırdığınız şeklinde bildirimler aldı müvekkiller.
("Clients who never received a receipt notice in any form — or who applied online and got no notification — checked their status in the system and found messages saying they had missed the payment during the stated window.")
And what USCIS told the firm when it asked what that message meant:
Eğer siz size tanınan süre içerisinde borcunuzu ödemediyseniz başvurunuz reddedilecek.
("If you did not pay within the period you were given, your application will be rejected.")
What changed
Two things, in quick succession. First, the courts stepped in. On July 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS, temporarily blocked USCIS from rejecting a pending asylum application, terminating asylum-based employment authorization, or initiating removal proceedings solely because an applicant failed to pay the annual fee. The order did not cancel the fee — it paused the penalties while the case proceeds. The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which filed its own challenge , reads it the same way: the fee stands, the harshest consequences are on hold.
Second, the payment screen came back. ASAP's fee guidance (updated August 6) reported that some people who previously received a "payment period expired" message are now able to pay. Çağlayan puts a harder date on it:
Ancak güzel gelişme şu 13 Ağustos 2026 tarihi itibariyle USCIS bu ödeme linkini tekrar aktive etti.
("But here's the good news: as of August 13, 2026, USCIS has reactivated this payment link.") The mechanics are simple: "Dolayısıyla siz alien numaranızı ve receipt numaranızı girerek borcunuzu ödeyebilirsiniz." ("So you can enter your alien number and receipt number and pay what you owe.")
Two firms, one day, one message
Çağlayan's documentation advice is specific — screenshot even a clean result:
Eğer sistem size herhangi bir borcunuz yok diyorsa bunun da bence ekran görüntüsünü alın.
("If the system tells you that you owe nothing, take a screenshot of that too.") And the urgency, stated plainly: "Bu linkin ne kadar aktif olup olmayacağını bilmiyoruz." ("We don't know how long this link will stay active.")
A second Turkish-language attorney account, @amerikadaavukatiniz (Gozel Law), posted the same development on August 14: "USCIS'in yıllık iltica ücreti için ödeme süresinin dolduğunu bildirdiği bazı kişilerde ekran tekrar açıldı. Ne kadar açık kalacağı belli değil, bu yüzden kontrol etmekte gecikmeyin." ("For some people whom USCIS had told the payment period was over, the screen has reopened. It's not clear how long it will stay open, so don't delay checking.") Two independent firms, same day, same message — check now.
The missed-payment problem itself had been building in attorney content for weeks: @thematthewsimmi.law ran two TikTok explainers in July — "What you should do if you fail to pay your asylum annual fee" (July 17) and "How to fix the issue of not paying asylum annual fee" (July 23) — a signal that missed-payment panic was already widespread among applicants well before the screen reopened.
Why this matters
The population at risk here is not people who ignored a bill. It is people the notice system failed — no mailed receipt, no online notification — who were then told they had missed a deadline they never saw, with application rejection as the stated consequence. The Venezuelan Association order shields them from the worst outcomes for now, but a court stay is temporary by definition. Actually paying — or documenting that the system says nothing is owed — is the durable fix, and right now the door for doing that is open.
The uncertainty cuts the other way too: neither the attorneys nor the advocacy groups tracking the fee know how long the reactivated screen stays up. That is why every version of this advice ends with "now."
What to do now
- Go to the payment page. my.uscis.gov/accounts/annual-asylum-fee — you will need your A-number and your receipt number.
- Check even if you never got a notice — and even if you were previously told your payment window had expired.
- If a balance shows, pay it and save the confirmation.
- If the system says you owe nothing, screenshot it with the date visible.
- Send the proof to your attorney — payment confirmation or no-balance screenshot — for the case file.
- If the screen still shows you as expired, document the attempt (screenshots, dates) and have your attorney raise it with USCIS; ASAP also points to the USCIS Contact Center (1-800-375-5283) and congressional case assistance as escalation paths.
Every case differs; these are general observations drawn from attorney commentary, court filings, and advocacy-group guidance, not legal advice for any particular matter.